Ballad of a Storm Devil
by KingLups
Summary: A young boy, raised to slay demons, finds himself abandoned and is taken in by Fairy Tail. This is the tale of his life and experiences as he adventures and fights with his new family.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Fairy Tail, or much else.

Hope you enjoy

The flash of lightning and the roar of thunder marred the cloudless sky. Hypnotized by the writhing blue bands of electricity, I watched the display of martial prowess unfold in front of me. I knew that I should be focusing on the book that lay open in my lap, just as I knew that the origin of the storm would turn her ire towards me when she noticed I was neglecting my work. Despite that, I couldn't help myself. As always, I was amazed at my mother's power. As if she could hear my internal dialogue, she suddenly turned towards my gaze and fired off a thin bolt of electricity that scorched the ground in front of me, filling my nostrils with the crisp scent of ozone. Within moments she stood over me, with a sour expression on her face,

"Is there a reason your eyes are on me and not your book?"

Without skipping a beat, I composed myself and put on a sympathetic face, "I can't help it, you're just so impressive and powerful."

She cracked a smile, "Flattery will get you in good with the girls, but it won't get you out of your education." Ruffling my hair, she took a seat next to me in the grass.

"I don't have any need for girls." I said, striking a defiant pose.

She laughed at me, "Maybe not at the age of nine, but eventually you'll find something you need from them." She tapped the corner of the book in my lap, "For now, you still have an hour of studying left." In the morning, she and I would practice our magic together for two hours. After that, I would study while she practiced her martial arts katas. Normally, she would walk through them without magic, but today she decided to up the intensity a bit. After her katas and my studying, we would have lunch, followed by her teaching me katas, and finally meditation to round out the scheduled part of our day.

"Remind me why I have to study this boring stuff again."

She sighed, "To be a good storm devil slayer you must be as powerful as thunder and as sharp as lightning. Don't forget that. Eventually you'll find yourself in a position that you can't get out of with force alone."

"Fine. But this is your fault for distracting me with magic while I was trying to concentrate." I knew full well it wasn't. I needed no help in finding a distraction.

As she walked away, I pretended to read as my mind wandered. Devil slayer magic is one of the rarest and most misunderstood forms of magic. Quite often my mother and I are mistakenly called lightning mages. It is more true than false, but it is a bit of an oversimplification. The magic of storm devil slayers, and devil slayers in general, interacts with the natural world in unique ways. Thunder is created by the heat of lightning, and therefore can be manipulated and utilized by storm devil slayers in a way that most lightning mages cannot. The primary reason for this is that while all magicks require emotion, devil slayer magic thrives off turbulent emotions, which creates a more primal force of magic that can seep into the natural world. It is not uncommon for storm devil slayers to cause the wind to whip up, or to bring storm clouds based on the power of their emotions while using their magic.

Of course, the part of devil slayer magic that everyone gets right is the part about slaying demons. Granted, because devil slayers slay demons, we are often called demon slayers. This isn't necessarily wrong, it just isn't the most correct title. But yeah, devil slayers slay demons; my mother does the same. She isn't part of any guild; she is an independent wizard who hunts demons for profit. While demon slaying is quite profitable, contracts to kill demons are also very rare. Because of this, we move around from place to place so that she can find work. She doesn't let me fight demons, which I think is dumb. In fact, she doesn't even let me come with her when she goes to hunt a demon; she either puts me up in an inn for however long it takes, or I camp by myself.

I risked a look up at my mother. It's always just been the two of us, roaming the countryside, searching for demons to kill. My mother never talks about her life before me, my father, or how she became a devil slayer in the first place. My train of thought caused me to glance down at the jagged black lines that crossed my forearm in an intricate pattern. The magic of demons is inherently incompatible with that of humans, so all devil slayers have tattoo-like markings, usually on one of their forearms. These tattoos are laced with ethernano and demonic energy that acts as a catalyst to allow the magic to form properly.

Lost in my thoughts, the following hour flew by. My mother walked past me to pick up her canteen,

"How did the rest of your studies go?" she asked after taking a long drink of water.

"Oh, you know. Western philosophy can be difficult to unpack, but it is always rewarding."

"It was so difficult that you never turned the page?"

My expression fell. "It was a very long page."

"Not any longer than the other ones." She placed the canteen on the ground and walked up next to me, peering over my shoulder, "You're on page 112? Finish the book, and then we'll talk about lunch."

I stared at her in disbelief, "There are over 400 pages in this book. Are you really going to keep us both from eating until I finish reading all of them?"

She gave a full-throated laugh that caused a pit to form in my gut, "Of course not; that would be crazy. I'm going to eat lunch. Better hurry up before there's none left." She gave me a sadistic smile and a wink before walking to the center of camp to start a fire.

One speed-read and several hours later, I was finally able to eat. My mother had fried some fish, and while it was a little cold, I still found it plenty appetizing.

"Now that you've actually read the book, how was it?" mother asked between bites.

"It was alright… a little weird. I still don't know why you got that one in particular. All it talked about was how life was pointless and that we can't truly enjoy it until we accept how none of our actions matter. I understand that you want me to learn, but I don't know why I need to learn that, specifically."

She shrugged, "It was on sale. I thought the cover looked interesting, but I certainly didn't think it would be so existential."

I stopped eating and frowned at her, "so you bought the book and made such a big deal about how I need to read it, but you didn't even know what is was about… and to top it all off, you give me a speech about how reading this book could save my life. I guess being an adult really does mean that you can do whatever you want…"

"I didn't say this book specifically could save your life," she said, flinging a stray stick at me, "I said that being smart will help you down the road. Reading makes you smart. Even if this book didn't teach you any single skill that will end up helping you, the act of reading it exercised your mind, and made you smarter."

I shook my head at her, "I don't think it works like that."

"Then read a rhetoric book and write me a persuasive essay on why you think I'm wrong." She smiled as I scoffed at her. We continued eating for some time before she broke the silence, "While you were reading the book I bought you to make you a more well-rounded person – you're welcome, by the way – I scouted out the area. There's a cave a few hours to the southeast that reeks of blood and sulfur. I'm pretty sure that's where this demon is hiding out."

"I take it you're going to head there tomorrow morning to kill it, and that I'm staying behind, as always." I was glad that she found it. It'd been awhile since she completed a job, and we were running a little low on jewel. She told me not to worry about it, but I knew that she would say the same thing even if I did need to worry about it.

"That's the gist of it. It shouldn't be too eventful, just a goat snatcher. Sounds like an easy job. I can't believe the reward is as high as it is. Who knew farmers even made that much?"

"They won't continue to make that much if this demon keeps stealing their goats." She muttered an affirmation and continued eating. I wish she would take me with her. If it was really going to be as simple a job as she said, then there really wasn't any issue with taking me along with her. Besides, I'm plenty strong; I could certainly handle a demon of this caliber. Though I internally raged against the injustice, I didn't dare voice it. I've had that same conversation with her far too many times and it always ended with the two of us getting into a screaming match and not talking for a day or two.

My mother finished her fish and stood up, dusting off her pants with her hands, "Alright, I know we're a little behind schedule for today, due to your own antics I might add, but do you want me to lead you through some katas?" I looked up at her with wide eyes to see her smirk of amusement. I had almost forgotten about training. In my haste to answer, I choked on a bite of fish. She laughed and began walking away from camp, already knowing my answer. I scarfed down the remainder of my meal and ran after her.

As I reached her, I immediately knew which kata she would have me start with, so I got into position and started to go through it. She rolled her eyes at my readiness but a prideful smile painted her face. The smile soon melted off her face as she began coldly assessing me with bright blue eyes that matched my own. She circled me as I went through the well-practiced motions. "Very good. You have a habit of dropping your shoulder and exposing your chin, but besides that, your motions are crisp and clean. Show me form II." Without need for further prompting, I shifted my body to acquiesce her request. Again, she silently analyzed me.

I completed the kata without interruption and looked to her for criticism, but to my surprise, she offered none. Instead, she pulled her light brown hair back into a ponytail and got into a stance of her own. "Your form is impeccable. Practicing the motions won't help you much more, but a live spar will. Try to hit me."

I blinked once. While the idea of sparring sounded like fun, I had a sinking suspicion that this would not end well for me. I shrugged and got into the stance for my first form. I knew she was waiting on me to attack, so I quickly assessed her stance to try to find some sort of vulnerability. The closest I could find was that she seemed to be slightly unbalanced onto her back foot. Planning my attack, I launched myself at her in an attempt to drive her back. Unfortunately, I soon realized that her stance was unbalanced intentionally as a way to bait me. She shifted her weight forward like a pendulum and kicked me square in the chest with her back foot, sending me flying onto my back. For a moment I lay on my back questioning all the decisions that lead me to this point, while simultaneously thanking every higher power I could name that she hadn't used her full force. I stood back up to try again, hoping that this one would go better

I ended up being grateful that my mother had gone to kill the demon in the morning because it gave me a chance to sleep in and rest my sore body. I knew it could've been a lot worse. She took it easy on me, and aside from a few scratches and bruises, I was more-or-less intact. Even if I wasn't sore, I wouldn't know what to do with myself, anyway. Days when my mother was gone, I didn't really know what to do. It would be different if we were in a city, but with money being tight, paying for a room for an unknown amount of time wasn't the most prudent option. If I were in the city, I would prefer to be by myself anyways. The city seemed so much grander when there was no one looking over my shoulder to make sure I wouldn't get in trouble. Usually I'd sneak off to some tavern, hopefully one that wasn't too seedy, and play cards. I had discovered that no one ever expected a nine-year-old to be a card shark, and so I often walked out with a full belly and some spending money.

I also wouldn't have to deal with strange men flirting with my mother if she wasn't around. Just another positive. Few things irritated me more than when some idiot tried to chat up my mother in front of me. One of those few things was when they tried to use me to get in her good graces; this amused neither her nor me. Telling me how beautiful and young my mother is, or subsequently how much I look like her, doesn't ingratiate them to me or her.

I suppose we do look alike. We have the same fair complexion, and same blue eyes, which conveniently match the color of our lightning. Her hair is so light it is almost blonde, and lays flat, which I don't understand due to how the static electricity always makes my hair stand up. My hair is also several shades darker than hers is. In addition to that, we have the same straight nose and high cheekbones.

Thinking so much about my mother was making me start to miss her. Aside from when she goes away on jobs, we're almost always together. She several hours ago, so she shouldn't be too much longer. Pushing the thought out of my head, I get up and do a few stretches before grabbing my pack to pull out something to eat. I found some dried meat and walked over to a big, shady tree to relax and eat breakfast…er, lunch.

After eating, I walked over to the small clearing where I had sparred the previous day and began to go through my katas, full of pride in my perceived competence. I was so wrapped up in my routine that I didn't notice the figure behind me until it grabbed me by the hair and threw me across the clearing. I skidded across the ground, tearing up patches of dirt and grass. When I finally came to a stop, I looked up in the direction of my assailant. Two large figures, with thick shoulders and arms stared back at me. One was blue and the other red. Both had patches of gray fur that spread across their shoulders and onto their backs, as well as ram-like horns, and large, distended jaws. Most alarmingly, I could see a murky black aura surrounding both of them. They were demons.

"This is the camp of that bitch who killed Muztagh, so that must be her runt." The red one said in a voice that was unpleasantly low and gruff.

The blue one grunted, "We came looking for some payback. What's better than killing her kid?" they both started laughing, an unnerving sound, as they approached.

I have been trained as a devil slayer as long as I can remember, but the sight of two demons in front of me froze me. I had never seen a live demon before, much less two. Knowing I needed to calm down if I had any chance of surviving, I began to take deep breaths. The demons could seem to smell my fear, and began to laugh menacingly. I would need to fight. I would need to live up to my title. Besides, they insulted my mother and for that, they deserved to die.

"Lightning Javelin!" I yelled as I thrust my tattooed arm forward. A bolt of lightning shot out of my palm, hot enough to melt the air it touched into plasma, allowing it to cut through flesh. The demons seemed surprised by my sudden defiance, and the attack hit the blue demon on its right side, below where I assumed its rib cage would be. The bolt tore through the demon, cauterizing the flesh as it went. The subsequent spasms of pain caused the seared flesh to crack and break, allowing blood to seep from the wound.

A look of shock crossed both of their faces before the blue one started howling in pain. The red one howled and ran towards me on all fours, running like an ape. The two were much larger and likely more physically powerful than me, so I planned to avoid them and attack from range to waste their advantage. Unfortunately I was a bit overzealous in my panic and used an advanced spell that took a lot out of me, so I would have to be more prudent with my spell selection from here on out.

I waited for the demon to get closer to me before rolling to my right. I sprung to my feet as fast as I could and channeled lightning through my body to dart forward at an inhuman speed, hearing the satisfying roar of a thunderclap as I made my move. My maneuver managed to land me behind the demon with 20 feet of distance. I fired off a bolt of lightning struck it square in the back, singeing its hair and filling the air with a disgusting aroma. This attack was not nearly as powerful as my lightning javelin and did significantly less damage, though it still provoked a pained grunt from the demon.

In my rush, I had neglected one of the main rules of fighting multiple opponents: I took my eye off one of them. It turns out that the blue demon had not been hurt as badly as I had thought and the next thing I knew, a heavy blow struck me in the side of my face, sending me once more careening across the ground. My head rung and I saw stars as I staggered to my feet. Both demons stood before me with looks of rage in their faces. I felt a warm sensation on my cheek, when I went to touch it my hand came back stained red with blood. Things were not looking good. The blue demon, understandably more upset than his kin leapt towards me and, had I not dove out of the way, would have pummeled me into the earth with both his fists. Dirt saturated the air, and I quickly scrambled to my feet. He continued to punch the earth, but by some divine providence, I managed to avoid all of them. As I stumbled around his attacks, I spied his wound and had an idea. I lunged forward and drove my hand into his wound causing him to forget his rampage and scream in pain. I drove my fingers into his burnt flesh, causing more blood to flow from the wound. Yelling, I tore my hand out, ripping the blisters and causing an open cascade from his body. He fell to his knees, howling in pain. Coating my fist with a veil of lightning, I thrust it to the sky with all my strength, crushing his agape jaw with enough force to elicit a sickening crunch. The scream ceased and the demon crumpled forward in a heap.

Panting with exertion, I made eye contact with the remaining demon, whose face was contorted with shock and fury. He beat the ground furiously before unleashing a primal cry and barreling towards me. I tried to take a step back, but I underestimated how much magical energy I had expended and how exhausted I was. My leg gave out from underneath me and I stumbled back, bracing myself with my hand to save myself from landing square on my rear. I soon realized that catching myself was the smallest of victories when the demon grabbed my leg and lifted me high over his head before slamming me down in the ground. The force jarred me, but strangely, I felt no pain. It was as if my body had gone numb. I was vaguely aware of him slamming me into the ground again, and my vision started to darken. I was beginning to get very sleepy.

All of a sudden, I remembered the gravity of the situation and shook myself back to awareness just in time to make contact with the ground again. I heard the crack before I felt it. All of the pain that I hadn't been aware of suddenly washed over me in waves. Quickly assessing my injuries, I determined that I had a broken rib, a dislocated shoulder, and some sort of head injury. There were probably more but I would have to worry about those later. For some reason the demon let go of my leg, leaving me spread across the ground like a shattered porcelain doll. He leaned his face over mine. I felt the hot stench of his breath saturate the air around my face

"Your bitch mother killed Muztagh, and you killed Krantrep. You both deserve to suffer. Don't pass out on me; I'm going to eat you alive and I want you to feel every bite as I strip your flesh and crunch your bones." I tried to think a way out of my situation, but my head was shrouded in haze. If I was going to come up with a plan, it was going to have to be simple. Devil slayer magic. It was dangerous, but more than that, it was toxic to demons. I didn't have much left in my body, but maybe if I channeled enough into this demon it would be enough to incapacitate him. Lifting my arm I brought it to his head, wrapping it around the base of his horn and started pouring as much storm devil slayer magic as I had left into my body into his skull. Electricity crackled and spread across his scalp. His eyes went wide as the pain registered. I pushed harder and more errant sparks spread. He started shaking violently, but I kept my grip on his horn. A thick white foam started to drip from his mouth and his eyes started to bulge and smoke as if they were going to pop from their sockets and assault me. Despite the tension, all I could hear was the tame popping of sparks and the beating of my own heart in my ears. After an unknowable amount of time, I heard a rattle deep in his throat and he collapsed on top of me, which certainly didn't help my bruised body. I laid under the behemoth, panting raggedly. I wouldn't have been able to move even if I wanted to. I lay helpless as shadows creeped at the edge of my vision and the world faded to darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Still don't own anything

I can't think of anything more unpleasant than that feeling when you aren't sure if you're dreaming or awake. That drunken haze, and the uneasiness of your limbs. I flailed my rebellious appendages fruitlessly at the air, as if that would chase away the clouds floating through my field of vision. An ungodly noise rang out, piercing through my head like an arrow. That noise was accompanies by a much softer, more familiar one.

"Hey, hey… its okay. Everything's okay." A voice cooed to me. A familiar figure moved into sight. My mother looked at me with an expression I had never seen before. Discolored bags hung below her normally hard eyes. Her hair, always neatly combed, hung like frayed linens from where they framed her face, and tickled my forehead. "How do you feel?" she asked in an almost pleading voice.

I gave an inglorious grunt, "If everything's okay, then why do I feel like I was run over by a train?" I tried to sit up but quickly gave up, reasoning that sloth was preferable to the bolts of pain that lanced through my body with every movement.

She bit her lip. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I was at the Grand Magic Games being showered with candy and applause when the moon fell on me." Her eyes widened as fear passed over her face, "…That was a joke. I remember. I fought to demons. And won, I might add."

She looked me up and down, "Is this what victory looks like?"

"Don't let my appearance fool you, I feel fantastic." I sardonically replied.

She reached her hand to touch my face, but quickly redrew it before it could make contact, as if my skin would burn her. She stood up and turned away in a hurry, "Do you need any water or anything?"

"Water would be nice." She stepped away, presumably to fetch some water. From across the room I could hear her muttering under her breath, talking about how it was too dangerous and something needed to change. It was at this point that I registered my surroundings. I wasn't outside, and this wasn't the inside of a tent, so I must be in a building. A cursory evaluation of the room told me that I was in a hospital. My mother returned with the water and handed it to me. When I noticeably flinched while reaching for it, she insisted on feeding it to me directly, even though it really wasn't necessary. The water was so cold that it was almost uncomfortable going down my throat. "We were at least a day away from the nearest town, how long was I out?"

She turned away and wiped her eye with the back of her hand, "It took half a day to get here, give or take, but–" her voice cracked and she sighed dramatically, "but you've been unconscious for a little over a week." Her statement hung and turned stale in the air. I opened my mouth to say something but couldn't find the words. This didn't make any sense. It stuck like a splinter in my brain. Surely I couldn't have been hurt that badly. The cold realization that I didn't know the extent of my injuries sunk it. I sat up, ignoring the pain and pulled the covers off myself. Aside from the bandages, everything looked normal. I wiggled my fingers and toes to make sure I still could. Everything seemed fine. I placed my hands gently on my torso to make sure that it was real. "You don't have any lasting injuries," my mother sniffed, "You've actually healed better than the doctors expected." I looked at her, my lingering question plain on my face. "You weren't unconscious because of any physical injury. You completely exhausted your reservoir of magical energy and pushed your body past its limit. The shock of using so much energy so quickly put you in a coma. There wasn't any doubt that you'd wake up, but…" she trailed off, seemingly not wanting to give voice to her fears.

I reached over and placed my hand over hers where it rested in her lap, "I'm okay. I am better than okay. I fought two demons and won, and I did it all because of your training. I did my job, you did yours, and there aren't going to be any lasting consequences of this." She turned her hand over to hold mine, then used the back of her other hand to wipe her nose. She smiled at me. Normally when she smiled, it was either coy or teasing, but this one felt warm. "Now, I successfully fought two demons, and I _am _in the hospital, so I think I deserve some ice cream."

She rolled her eyes, "You never do miss an opportunity, do you?

"Those demons can attest to that firsthand." A twitch pulled at the corner of her mouth at my words before she wordlessly stood up to retrieve some ice cream.

lll

Mother sure wasn't kidding about my injuries healing fast. Aside from the broken rib, which still an issue, all my injuries were negligible at this point. I absent-mindedly rolled my shoulder at the thought of how it had been dislocated during the fight. Luckily, we had been near a fairly large city, with a big enough hospital to have some talented healing wizards.

After I woke up the doctors ran a few tests to make sure all my faculties were functioning as they should. When they were satisfied, they released me. My mother had been in such a rush to get me medical attention after she found me that she hadn't packed up our camp or brought anything with her, and when I was unconscious she refused to leave my side, so I had to wear the same clothes I had on when I was brought in. The nurses were nice enough to wash them for me, but some of the blood stains refused to come out, and the sight of them made me a bit queasy so I tried not to look at or think about them. They also smelled like death, although that may have been my imagination. Currently, we were walking through the city. Mother had been suspiciously quiet since we left the hospital, and wouldn't even tell me where we were going. I had thought we would walk back to the camp to get it packed up, or to retrieve the bounty for the demons that she and I had killed, but the client lived on the outskirts of the city, and the camp was well outside the city and we were heading towards the center of the city. I couldn't help but worry about her. It wasn't unlike her to be quiet, but she seemed almost pensive.

Soon we arrived at a small restaurant close to the markets with outside seating in the form of tables with umbrellas in the center, giving shade. We went inside and mother ordered two meals before heading back outside to sit at one of the tables. Wordlessly, I began to eat before I noticed that she had not touched her food and was staring at me intently,

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked, feeling small under her gaze.

She blinked as if awakened from a trance, "Oh… yeah. I was just thinking. I…what happened?" I had forgotten that she hadn't actually heard the story of my conflict with the demons. It must've been eating at her this whole time. I couldn't' help but admire her restraint in not pestering me about it until now.

"Oh, uh, well…I was just practicing a little and they came up from behind and attacked me. I fought back, and won." I felt deeply uncomfortable discussing this with her for some reason. It might've been the way she stared at me, or maybe it was just still too recent for comfort.

"That's it? That's all that happened? Cause from looking at the area, it seemed that there was a lot more to it than that." She stated tersely.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I want to know what happened. In detail."

I put down my fork, sighed, and thought about where to start, "One of them hit me from behind and sent me skidding. I used a lightning javelin…" she interrupted me with a disapproving grunt, "…and the one I didn't hit charged at me. I dodged behind him and threw a bolt at him from behind, but the other one punched me from behind. After I stood up, the injured one charged at me and I-I…" the memory of raking my fingers through his wound washed over me and I resisted the urge to gag, "used his injury to incapacitate him. The other one grabbed me and, honestly, things get a little blurry from then on." As I finished my tale, I realized I had been avoiding eye contact with my mother and I looked up at her. She looked irate.

"So… you allowed them to catch you off-guard. Being vigilant, we've covered that. Then you tried to use a technique that you _know_ is too advanced for you," I opened my mouth to protest, but she levelled me with a glare, "which must've put who knows what kind of strain on your body. Oh wait, we do know… it was enough to put you in a damn coma!" from the look she was giving me, I was afraid she'd grow fangs and sink them into my throat. "If that weren't bad enough, once you gained a tactical advantage you took your eyes off your enemy and allowed them to catch you flat-footed for a second time. Again, vigilance. Through some miracle you took one of them down without getting yourself killed, and then you let yourself get grappled by a stronger enemy and were damn near killed for it." She looked off into empty space and let out a short laugh, "I don't know what god took pity on you, but you should be dead. You. Should. Be. Dead. You were sloppy. I trained you better than that. Every single mistake you made was something I've warned you about time and time again. Were you not listening, or did you just not care?" she looked to me for a reply, but I was afraid that if I said anything, the hot tears welling in my eyes would fall. "This is life and death. You don't get to be lazy and live. The next time I can guarantee you won't be so lucky." I wished I could find some dark recess inside myself that I could retreat to, but no matter how much I desired it, the present remained facing me.

"What do you want me to say?" came my small reply.

"I don't want you to say anything; I want you to do better!" The tears began to fall. I felt pathetic sitting at this nice restaurant, in public, crying like a baby while my mother looked on, ashamed of me. She didn't say anything else. We both sat there for a while before leaving without finishing our meals. She took me to an inn and paid for a room, then left me in said room and departed. I had no clue where she was, but it was getting dark and I curled up in the sheets of one of the beds and tried to sleep. I laid there for what felt like hours, replaying her words in my head. I felt like I had let her down. All I could do was promise myself that I would do better so that she would stop being so disappointed and could be proud of me.

lll

I couldn't remember falling asleep, but I woke up the next morning to the bustle of the city. I rolled over in my bed to see my mother sitting on her bed, looking at me. She looked like she hadn't slept.

"Get ready, we're leaving in 15 minutes." Was the only greeting I received. I couldn't tell if she was still angry, but I didn't want to take my chances. I shook off my drowsiness and got myself ready.

Once again, she lead me through the city, and once again I had no clue where we were going. Eventually, we came to a large building with a peculiar symbol hanging from a banner on the front of the building. She lead me through the doors into a spacious barroom, with all kinds of people talking, laughing, and, in a few instances, fighting. I followed her as she walked towards the bar. A very short, old man seemed to notice her and made his way towards us. When he saw me, his expression softened,

"Hello, young man, what's your name?" he asked me warmly. Despite his age, he was eye height with me. Normally I wasn't a fan of adults I didn't know, but him not towering over me made him seem less threatening.

"Casteel. Casteel Raekin. Who are you?"

He smiled and extended his hand, "I'm master Makarov, it's a pleasure to meet you." I tentatively shook his hand, unsure of what was going on, "Do you know what this place is?"

I gave the interior another once-over, "A bar?"

He gave a dry laugh, "You're too far off. This is the hall of a magical guild. The Fairy Tail guild, to be specific."

My mother leaned down to look me in the eye, "You're going to be staying here for a while." I could tell she was trying to give me a comforting expression, but it landed wide of the mark.

I looked back and forth between Makarov and my mother, "What? Why?" my heart felt like it would burst from my chest. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It had always been her and I. Why would she change that?

"It's just too dangerous to have you around while I work. Something bad could happen again, and I'm not going to risk your well-being."

"B-but couldn't you do something else? Something less dangerous?"

She looked to the side and bit her lip. "I hunt demons. That's what I do. Besides, look how fun this place looks! There are plenty of other kids, and you could use some more interaction with kids your age. Plus, it's a magical guild, so you can keep up with your training. It's like a magical daycare!" she put on a clearly fake smile that faltered when she saw the hurt expression on my face.

My eyes started to burn with unshed tears, "Is this because I disappointed you?" I hugged her leg, "Please don't leave me! I'll do better!"

She pulled me off her leg and held me at arm's length, looking into my eyes, "I've made my decision, don't make this harder than it needs to be. Don't worry, I'll come to visit you between jobs. This is only temporary." Looking at me like this, she seemed older than I had ever seen her. When I didn't say anything else, she hugged me and told me that she loved and would miss me, then left. I felt weightless. Just floating some artificial reality, as if I were in a waking dream.

I was pulled from my stupor by a hand on my shoulder. "I know this is hard for you, and if there is anything I can do to make you feel welcome, then just name it. This guild is a family and I see all of its members as my children. If you'll let us, we'd like to be a family to you too." I nodded. Noticing that the tears on my cheeks had dried and crusted, I wiped them. His words comforted me, but I wouldn't truly understand them until years later.

lll

It had been two days since I had been dropped off at Fairy Tail. They had set me up with a room, the first time I had ever had a room to myself. Apparently, adult members had to pay rent, but kids received rooms free of charge. Speaking of which, it seemed as if half the guild was my age, which I neither understood nor questioned. I would've spent my time sitting in my room, but whenever I did, I felt loneliness weighing down on my shoulders. Therefore, instead of confronting my existential solitude, I chose to spend my time sitting in the corner of the common room, observing everyone. People came up to speak to me every now and then, most notably Makarov and a man named Macao, who, to his credit, seemed to be good with kids. I would speak and be polite, but in truth, I hadn't felt like talking to anyone.

Today there was a fight (which seemed to be a common occurrence) between a redheaded girl, and a white-haired girl. They were always at each other's throats, and mentally critiquing their fights was the most intellectually stimulating thing I could find to do while sitting in the corner. I also noticed several people playing cards at one of the tables, but couldn't see much from my perch. From what I could tell, a brunette girl in a yellow dress was cleaning up. It reminded me of times when my mother was away and I would hustle at cards in whatever bar I could find. A cocky smirk appeared on my face, but was short-lived as the fond memories were crushed under the heel of the fact that my mother had left me here. I let out a long sigh. Contrary to logic, spending 16 hours a day sitting in a corner could be exhausting, especially if you spent those hours emotionally tormenting yourself.

All of a sudden, a fire ignited deep within my belly, spreading warmth throughout my whole body. I was tired of feeling sorry for myself; moreover, I was better than this. I was a damned devil slayer for crying out loud. A week ago, I killed two of those evil suckers. It was time I put some respect on my name and did something. Banishing my sadness and ignoring my shyness, I marched up to the table of card players with the confidence of a war hero, and probably only looked slightly ridiculous doing it.

The heads at the table turned to look at me. I recognized Macao, but besides him, there was the aforementioned brunette in yellow, a smoking man with an eccentric hairstyle, a shirtless boy with dark hair, a boy with spiky pink hair, and a girl with short white hair who I think was named Lisanna (I was pretty sure she was the sister of the white-haired girl fighting the redhead). All the heads turned to look at me.

"_Shit_," I thought as I realized that I walked the whole way up here without thinking about what I was going to say.

"We just finished a round, do you want to join us?" the brunette asked.

"Are you playing 5 card?" I said, trying as hard as absolutely possible to sound cool.

She smirked at me, "That's all we play."

"Then count me in." they cleared a spot for me between Lisanna(?) and the dark haired boy, "My name is Casteel, by the way." They went around the table stating their names. The brunette was named Cana, the smoking man was named Wakaba, the dark-haired boy was named Gray, the pink-haired boy was Natsu, and the white-haired girl was indeed Lisanna.

"So are you a wizard too? What kind of magic do you use?!" Natsu asked. I was getting the impression that he was an excitable one.

I gave a smirk, "Yeah, I'm a devil slayer." To illustrate my point I held up a hand and summoned a small volley of sparks.

"Whoa… that's so cool! I didn't know that there were devil slayers. I'm a dragon slayer, though!" he turned his head back and breathed fire into the air.

"Laxus uses lightning too, but he isn't a devil slayer… and his lightning is yellow come to think of it." Lisanna added.

"That's cool and all, but I raise." Cana said confidently.

"Ahhh, that's too rich for my blood; I fold." Wakaba said as he placed his cards face down on the table.

"Me too." Macao too, folded.

"Oh yeah?! Well I raise your raise!" Natsu yelled, before Lisanna calmly reminded him that he was already out of chips. In the end, everyone folded except me. I wanted to win to make a good impression, and I was confident in my hand.

"Ready to lose?" I asked Cana, with a smug smile on my face.

"No, but I am ready to help you lose." She responded. In unison, we placed our cards on the table. The table was quiet for a moment as looked at the cards. I looked Cana in the eye and smiled. The table erupted. Jacks over 10s beats 8s over 2s.

"Ready now?" I asked her, pulling the chips in the center towards me. She just shook her head and leaned back in her chair. We played for several hours, laughing and having fun. For the evening, I forgot all about my mother.


	3. Chapter 3

Even after the time skip, I still own nothing

lll

**13 years later**

One of the best things about not having a regular work schedule is that I can sleep as late as I want. Usually that means I roll out of bed at around 10, and today was no exception. I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. I had moved out of the Fairy Tail dorms into my own apartment about 6 years ago. Business as one of the only devil slayers in Fiore could be very lucrative, so I had more than enough to afford my own place. I received a non-insignificant amount of specific requests to deal with demons, and even on standard jobs, just having the title of devil slayer brought notoriety.

After a quick shower and some breakfast/lunch, I dressed myself in my usual attire of a red V-neck t-shirt, black pants, a comfortable pair of dark shoes, and a gray jacket with red stripes on the sleeves. I always rolled the sleeves up to my elbows, and when asked, I would say it was so I could proudly display the devil slayer tattoo on my right forearm and the black Fairy Tail guild mark on my left. In truth, I just hated the feeling of clothing on my wrists, but I thought the other answer sounded better.

I grabbed a book I had borrowed from Levy off the arm of my couch, intending to return it once I got to the guild. One of the main reasons I had chosen this apartment (aside from how close it was to the guild hall) was that it had a large living room with handmade bookshelves installed in the walls and a fireplace. Of course I turned the room into my library, and was more than a little proud of it. My apartment wasn't especially big or well furnished, outside of some trophies I had acquired on jobs, and I didn't need it to be. I spent most of my time at the guildhall, and I just needed a small, quiet area to sleep and be alone when I wanted.

Leaving my apartment, I began to make the 5 minute walk to the guildhall. As I was walking, I noticed a couple girls looking and giggling at me. I smirked to myself. I knew that I had an appearance that was sometimes seen as attractive to the opposite sex, and had no qualms with that. I paid them little mind and continued walking, only to hear a voice from behind me,

"Umm, excuse me… are you Casteel Raekin?" I turned to see who had addressed me and identified the girl standing in front of me as one of the girls who had been giggling and looking a moment earlier.

"Yes, I am." I smiled politely at her. She looked to be a few years younger than I was. She had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and was on the shorter side. My smile immediately fell when I saw what she had in her hands. A copy of _Sorcerer Weekly_ from two weeks ago.

_Sorcerer Weekly _had been receiving flack about their 'unequal portrayal of men and women,' which of course meant that their pages were flush with attractive female wizards, often in revealing clothes no less. To combat this, the publication decided to do an issue to celebrate male wizards. This is how the 'Men of Fairy Tail' issue had come to be. They could have picked any guild. They really could have picked any guild. Hell, the guys at the Blue Pegasus guild would have probably been more than happy to do it. But no, they chose Fairy Tail. Almost no one who wasn't on a job wanted to do it, but Mira became very excited at the prospect and as a general rule, no one can say no to Mira. The male wizards who weren't on a job, and were therefore suckered into it were myself, Gray, Loke, Elfman, Alzack, Jet, and Droy. Technically speaking, Laxus, Freed and Bickslow were there, but they all mysterious disappeared the morning of the shoot. The title they wanted to use was, "The Shockingly Cool Men of Fairy Tail" so guess which lightning and ice wizards they wanted to use for the cover. Neither Gray not I wanted to be on the cover, but Mira insisted that it would be great. If that wasn't bad enough, Gray had forgotten to wear a shirt to the shoot, which gave the photographer the idea to have us both be shirtless for the cover. He said, and this is a direct quote, that it would be "SOOOO COOOOOOL!"

That cover was currently staring back at me from the girl's hands. I looked back up at her and forced the smile back onto my face. The whole issue was incredibly embarrassing to me, and to make matters worse, people kept bringing it up to me, just like now.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe its really you!" The girl squealed. I wanted to point out that Magnolia wasn't that big of a city, and that she was two blocks from the guildhall, but that seemed like it would be rude, so instead I kept the smile plastered on my face. "Could you, like, sign my copy of _Sorcerer Weekly_?" she seemed like she was going to hyperventilate as she asked me, which genuinely confused me, because I'm not that big a deal.

"Yeah, of course." I choked out. She squealed again and rooted around in her purse for a pen and handing the it, along with the magazine to me. I took them, and stared at my own image. The photographer had wanted our guild marks to be plainly visible, which wasn't an issue for Gray since his was on his chest. Since mine was on my forearm, I was asked to put my hand on the back of my head, to highlight it. Aside from that, I had my right arm bent at the elbow, and coated my right hand in lightning, while Gray did the same thing with his left hand, subbing ice for lightning.

I couldn't help but stare at myself. I had short, light brown hair that always stuck up and to the right, light blue eyes, a fair complexion, an angular face, and a straight nose. I had kept up with the training schedule my mother had taught me, although I moved it to later in the day so that I could sleep in, so I was in great good shape, with a toned, athletic build. Though I had an aesthetically pleasing face, my natural expression was described by Levy as unapproachable, while Cana preferred to say that I had resting bitch face.

Giving a gentle sigh, I signed the magazine and handed it back to the girl, giving her one last smile and turning on my heel and marching to the guild in a slightly lesser mood than I had previously been in.

lll

A short while later, I entered the guildhall. I surveyed the room marveling with no small amount of fondness, the seemingly paradoxical mix and violence and fellowship that flowed through the common area on a daily basis. I spotted Levy sitting at a table, reading a book and absent-mindedly nodding along to the conversation that Jet and Droy seemed to think they were having with her. I made my way over the table and announced my presence by placing the book on the table. The gentle thud caused the trio to cease their activities and look towards me.

"Finished." I said plainly to Levy, before turning to nod at Jet and Droy, thus acknowledging their presence. On an interpersonal level, I liked both Jet and Droy; they were both good friends, and made for good conversation. However, I found their shared enamor of Levy to be a bit grating. It must be difficult for them to both share an infatuation for Levy, I understood that much. My problem lied with how they both seemed to treat her as an object rather than a person within their infatuation. Furthermore, at a certain point one of them has to man up and be upfront with her, but I found their refusal to do so to be quite irritating.

Levy looked up at me, "Already? I loaned that to you less than a week ago."

I shrugged, "I read fast."

She shook her head at me, "I keep telling you that you should take time with books. The faster you go, the more you miss." She sighed, "Anyways, what did you think?"

"It was interesting and well-written, but I fundamentally disagree with his main assertion." I let my sentence hang in the air, waiting for her to prompt me for more details.

"I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise; you disagree with everything."

"I do not." I replied quickly

She quirked an eyebrow at me, "You disagree with my statement about you disagreeing with everything? Please tell me I don't have to point out the irony in that." She had me dead to rights on that one.

"Fair point, but doesn't the reason I disagree matter more than the fact that I disagree?" I asked, not quite ready to let the point die.

She smiled and rolled her eyes, "I think the fact that you disagree with everything puts your reason for disagreement under suspicion. You're a contrarian, so you'll find a reason to disagree, rather than come to one naturally. Like how an alcoholic will find a reason to drink."

"Leave Cana out of this." I joked with a smirk.

"You always deflect with humor when you know you're wrong." She explained with another eye roll.

"I deflect with humor because I'm funny."

"Not as much as you think."

I couldn't think of a witty retort to that one, "So are you going to ask me why I disagree with the author?"

She smiled and leaned back in her chair, "I don't think so. I know you desperately want me to, but its fun watching you squirm."

I posted my hand to my chest and staggered back in mock hurt, then turned to Droy, "Droy, I think you'll be interested to know that I disagree with the author because I think he builds his arguments on a faulty premise. I think he underestimates the breadth of deism during the reformation, and discredits its spread in the subsequent centuries."

Levy had been trying to ignore me, but at the conclusion of my statement she turned to me, "You know that's not what he was saying! He was just trying to explain the foundations of deism, not track it through the ages; that wasn't his premise!" she exclaimed.

A broad smile spread across my face and I pointed towards Levy, "I _knew_ you were interested in why I thought he was wrong! I _win_!" I started to back away from the table as I made my declaration.

"Win? Win what? This isn't a competition!" her voice started raising as I moved further away from where she sat.

"You're only saying that because you lost!" I quickly turned and jogged to the bar so that she wouldn't be able to get the last word in.

I took a seat at the bar, and politely asked Mira for a drink. As I took my first sip, I heard a voice from behind me,

"What's up, cover girl?" Cana said as she took a seat next to me and ordered three drinks of her own.

"Isn't alcohol supposed to give you memory loss? When is that going to start to kick in?" I asked, a little sour that the damned magazine cover was being brought up again.

"Don't worry; I plastered my walls with the cover so I'll never forget it." She joked.

"Well that's more than a little creepy."

"What can I say? I feed off of shame and despair." By this point, I had barely made a dent in my mug, while she had just finished her second.

"Apparently you're not the only one; some girl asked me to sign her copy on the way over here."

"How sweet, you have fan girls. That means you've finally made it in life." She punched me playfully in the shoulder. I thought about giving her a little zap, but decided against it.

"Oh joy, just what I've always wanted." I stated dryly before taking a drink. "By the way, have you taken any jobs recently?"

She shook her head after finishing off her third drink, "I gave myself last week off."

"And the week before that?" I inquired.

"What was the week before that? Actually, what's today?"

"The 25th"

"Really? Did I miss an entire week? Maybe I should stop drinking so much." She punctuated her sentence by ordering three more drinks. "What about you? Have you any jobs recently?"

"There was supposedly a demon up north that someone offered 250,000 jewel in exchange for taking it out, and I went to go take care of it. The problem was that someone had beat me to the punch."

"Dear old mom?" She asked, giving me an odd sort of look.

"Yeah. There wasn't much left when I got there; it looked like the entire countryside was scorched." I had never realized how big a deal Treia Raekin was until I came to Fairy Tail. She was the most well-known devil slayer on the continent, not that there were many to begin with. Whenever she came to visit, it was like a celebrity had come to the guild. Everyone loved her. True to her word, she had come to visit from time to time, but her visits started to become more and more infrequent, to the point that it was more likely I'd run into her on a job. It had been about a year and a half since I'd last seen her.

"Well that's…something." Cana responded before taking a long swig of her mug.

"Yeah, something indeed." For a moment, we sat and drank in silence.

"So…want to get trashed and find some trouble?" She flashed a mischievous smirk as she asked.

I chuckled, "You do know the way to my heart, don't you."

"Damn straight" she agreed. We both downed the rest of our mugs and ordered more before hearing a louder than usual commotion. In unison, we turned to see Gray and Natsu brawling in the middle of the guildhall.

"Looks like Natsu is back." I thought aloud as the brawl started to drag more and more people into the fray.

"Looks like he brought someone with him too." Cana stated, pointing to a blonde girl with a sideways ponytail, "She's cute. Think she's Natsu's girlfriend?"

I scoffed, "Doubtful. He was raised by a dragon, right? Do you think he was ever taught about the birds and the bees?"

"If he was, I'm sure it was an abridged version." I laughed heartily at her joke.

"She looks uncomfortable, let's go introduce ourselves." I sat up and started to walk over to the girl, avoiding flying debris as I went. Cana rolled her eyes and followed me.

"Hi, I'm Casteel." I stated warmly as I reached her, extending my hand to her.

She looked at me and shook my hand, "It's nice to meet you, I'm Lucy." Her expression changed suddenly and she tilted her head as she looked at me, which made me a bit uncomfortable. Her eyes then lit up, "Oh my gosh! You're Casteel Raekin! I loved your feature in _Sorcerer Weekly_!" my eye twitched at her comment and Cana burst into laughter.


	4. Chapter 4

Someone said they wanted more? Bet.

This is just a short, transitional chapter, so I managed to churn it out quicker than I thought. Things will start to pick up in the next chapter, which I'll hopefully be done with by Friday.

As always I still own nothing. Well…except for Casteel and Treia.

As it turned out, Lucy was not Natsu's girlfriend. Instead, she was looking to join the guild, where we welcomed her with open arms. Ignoring my first impression of her, she turned out to be a good guild mate, even if she was a bit high-maintenance by my estimation. But then again, who was I to talk? That evening she had joined us for a round of cards, but the only two things she accomplished were fangirling for a while and losing most her money. I made a mental note to teach her how to bluff, but never got the chance due to Natsu dragging her off to quest after quest. I suppose I have no room to complain since I took my fair share of jobs in the coming weeks. There weren't any specialty jobs posted, so I settled for some less lucrative work, hence why I took more than I normally do. I tagged along with Alzack and Bisca to apprehend some bandits, though the three of us ended up being overkill. After that, I helped a village set up an irrigation system, which I was in no way qualified for, but made do regardless. The last job I took was to guard a ship full of trade goods overnight. Guard jobs were usually easy. Occasionally something would happen, but normally I would just sit and read a book while making sure no one tried to make off with whatever I was protecting.

Overall, it was a boring week. For whatever reason, I had started to get restless. I had finished all three of the jobs by Thursday, and there weren't any other jobs that interested me. There was one job posting for hunting a volcano demon, but the same person before had hired me, and his jobs were usually excuses to try and get me to teach him devil slayer magic. I had tried reading more, but I found that I couldn't concentrate. I ended up compensating by increasing my training workload. I had mixed results with that. It kept me occupied, but I overexerted myself and injured my shoulder. I decided that refraining from further aggravating my injury was more pressing than avoiding boredom. To make matters worse, the guildhall had been suspiciously empty as of late. Come to think of it, there was probably a correlation between everyone being out on jobs and there being no good jobs available. That's how I found myself playing solitaire in an empty guildhall, while icing my shoulder. I absent-mindedly flipped through the cards, barely able to focus on the game, but also having nothing else to focus on. The only other people in the guildhall were Reedus, who was busy painting and probably wouldn't want to be disturbed, and Nab, who was franticly searching the quest board for a job. I was soon made aware of the fact that I was wrong in my initial read of the room, as master Makarov appeared next to the table. For an old codger, he was surprisingly stealthy.

"What did you do to your shoulder?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I over trained and sprained it." I turned to him, completely foregoing my game.

"It's not too bad, I hope."

"No, it'll be right as rain in a few days. I'm just taking a break from training so I don't aggravate it." I looked around at the guildhall, "Of course I don't know what else to do, since there isn't anyone around. Why is everyone taking so many jobs, anyways? Even Nab looks like he might take one."

Makarov laughed at some unknown joke, "You mean you haven't heard?" I looked at him blankly to signal that I had no idea what he meant. "Erza is due back tomorrow."

Everything mentally clicked into place, "Ohhhhhh…everyone doesn't want Erza to think they're slacking off in her absence, so they're trying to clear the board as much as possible. That makes sense."

Makarov nodded in affirmation, "She does have a way of whipping this place into shape, doesn't she?"

I chuckled in response, "That she does. It sure makes your job easier though."

"I can't argue with that. That's part of the reason I've delayed heading to this damned conference until later today."

I shot him an inquisitive look, "Conference? That can't be good. Hopefully its not about avoiding property damage."

"You're one to talk. I still get grief from the magic council for that time you electrocuted an entire lake and killed all the fish in it." He grumbled

"For the last time…I was hunting a water demon and it jumped into a lake. It's not my fault water conducts electricity. What was I supposed to do? Write the demon a strongly worded letter about how our fight could harm the biosphere?" Of course he'd bring up the lake. He always brought up the lake. "But seriously, what's this conference for?"

"Its nothing important. All the guild masters are meeting to go over some odds and ends, nothing to worry about. I hope." With that, he took a long swig out of my mug.

"You're welcome." I said sardonically.

"No, you're welcome." He said before walking off. I smiled and shook my head. May the master never change.

lll

The guild started to fill up later in the day and the next morning. Paradoxically, everyone was afraid of Erza, but everyone wanted to see her. By the following afternoon the guild was back to normal capacity. I spent the early part of the day listening to all the stories of how everyone's jobs went. Easily the most bizarre was the job Natsu, Happy, and Lucy had gone on. Apparently, they had gone to steal a book from a pervert who had bad taste in women, and ended up refusing a 2 million jewel reward. At least I think. It was hard to tell because Natsu told a suspiciously over-the-top version of the story, which Lucy would then contradict and subsequently rant about how the pervert they were stealing from wouldn't know a pretty girl if she landed on him (which I think she did); all the while, Happy acted out every part of the story. I wasn't sure what actually happened, but it was an entertaining story so I didn't really care.

Soon after hearing the story, Natsu and Gray got into another fight. Halfway through their brawl, the ominous echo of footsteps halted all movement in the guildhall. Everyone's eyes were drawn to the entrance, which swung open to reveal the imposing figure of Erza Scarlet. On Erza's shoulders was a large…something, which she promptly set in the middle of the floor. After hearing that master Makarov was away at his conference, she lectured us all for causing trouble, before tearing into individual members for specific indiscretions. I couldn't keep myself from laughing when she told Cana to control her drinking, but she then turned her stern gaze on me and told me to stop gambling, albeit in much harsher language than I'd care to repeat.

After her tour de terror, she turned to Natsu and Gray, who were frozen in their grappled state. She informed them that she had heard some disturbing news, and needed their help because they were the strongest two there. I took issue with that, because of course I took issue with that. I politely raised my (uninjured) arm,

"Um, hold up now…they're the strongest two here? Natsu and Gray, the strongest? Am I hearing that right?" I asked, trying to be as polite as possible, but finding it impossible to hide the irritation in my voice.

"Yes, is there a problem a problem with that?" she asked as though she had no idea what I was getting at, which only furthered my irritation.

I sighed and rubbed my brow with my hand, questioning if I was suicidal enough to go through with this, "I mean, yeah, cause," I waved my hand about my head for dramatic effect, "You know, I'm here." My pride was really going to get me killed one of these days. As I finished my statement, she started walking towards me. Everyone's intent gaze did nothing to ease my nerves.

"You appear to be injured; it would be irresponsible to take an injured comrade into battle."

The fact that she hadn't responded with violence emboldened me, "What, this?" I motioned to the bag of ice on my shoulder, "This is just a minor sprain, I'm fine!"

She gave me a peculiar look, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, of course. I–" she punched me in the shoulder. She punched me in my damn shoulder. I fell backwards off my chair, moaning in pain.

"Your shoulder doesn't seem to be fully healed. You should keep icing and resting it." With that she walked away, leaving me to my misery. I wanted to yell back that my pain had little to do with my injury and more to do with being PUNCHED IN THE SHOULDER BY AN S-CLASS WIZARD, but didn't want to press my luck any further.

Gray made his way over to me, "That looked like it hurt." He said with a hint of amusement.

"You have to be with her for an entire mission." Realization dawned on him, and a grim expression came over his face. "Be sure not to mess up. Oh, and try not to fight with Natsu in front of her. Who knows what she'll do to you."

He narrowed his eyes at me, "Touché" he said before walking away.

I stood up and ordered a drink from Mira. Cana sat down next to me and ordered her own. "You really should've known better." When her drink came up, I grabbed it out of her hand and chugged it. She looked at me with a mix of shock and horror as I slammed her mug down on the bar.

"You're supposed to control your drinking, remember?" I said with a blank face. Her expression morphed to one of cold fury.

"I'm going to get you for that." She said with squinted eyes and pursed lips.

"What are you going to do? Punch me in the shoulder?" I shouldn't have said that, because that's exactly what she did.

lll

I spent the next few days icing and resting my shoulder as Erza had recommended. It turned out that being hit in the shoulder multiple times only aggravated my injury. Who would've thought. On the bright side, I found myself to be less restless with everyone being back in the guildhall. I had loaned Levy a book of fairy tales (the irony was not lost on me) and we had spent much of the next few days discussing it. Aside from that, the most interesting thing that had happened was when Reedus asked if he could paint a portrait of me. Of course, I said yes, and sat for about an hour or two while he painted (I really expected it to be longer). When he showed me the portrait, it was a near perfect recreation of the _Sorcerer Weekly _cover. I was honestly so impressed by the prank that I couldn't even be mad about it.

Eventually the team of Erza, Natsu, and Gray (Lucy and Happy had tagged along, because, of course they did) returned with quite the story.

"Casteel, you should've been there. There was a demon from the Book of Zeref. You would've been a big help."

I stared blankly ahead as Natsu told me about their adventure, "You don't say…"

"Yeah, it was intense there for a while. Devil slayer magic would've come in handy. Haha, I know I would be upset if someone in the guild fought a dragon without me." Natsu blathered on about how I should've been there, completely ignorant to how aggravated I was, and how everyone in the nearby vicinity was barely restraining their laughter at what to them must have been an amusing scene.

Eventually, Erza walked over to us. "Natsu, maybe you should give Casteel a break. He's probably not too happy that he missed the battle."

"Oh, well okay. Speaking of Happy, I should go find him." Natsu ran off to search for his flying feline friend.

"How is your shoulder?" Erza asked with a plaintive smirk.

"Better than after you punched me, but worse than before you punched me."

She raised an eyebrow at me, "Really?"

I shook my head, "No, I'm just being bitter."

She laughed at my transparency, "Bitterness doesn't suit you. You should go back to being smug and sarcastic."

"Smug? Sarcastic? I take offense to that."

She smiled at me, "There you are."

I cracked a smile too. A moment passed, "Do you really think that Natsu and Gray are stronger than me?"

"Would it matter if I did?"

"Well…yeah" I said; weary of where she was going with this.

She gave me an inquisitive look, "Why?"

"Well…because," I took a moment to organize my thoughts, "You're strong and I respect you, so your opinion matters."

"If I did think that they were stronger than you, would that make it true?"

"_Hell_ no" I emphatically answered.

"If whatever I think doesn't change if you think you're stronger, and if it doesn't change the reality of who is stronger, then it shouldn't change anything. But if it still does, maybe you should go and prove you're stronger." She had a mischievous twinkle in her eye that I had never expected of her. I considered what she said carefully. Eventually I came to my conclusion. I looked her in the eye and smiled before standing up,

"Hey Natsu!" everyone in the guildhall turned to look at me. I raised my right hand and sheaved it in lightning, "how do you feel about having a little spar?" I could almost see the fire light in his eyes as he wrapped his own fist in a wreath of fire.


	5. Chapter 5

True to my word, another chapter on Friday

And I still don't own Fairy Tail

lll

The deafening sound of hushed whispers echoed throughout the guild. I tried to avoid paying attention to what people were saying, just as I tried to pretend I was not worried or bothered. Despite this, I found myself hearing more than I wished, and caught myself gritting my teeth more than once. As it happened, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy had broken guild rules and took on an S-class quest. I didn't particularly care that they took on the quest; I found the designation between S-class and the rest of the guild to be arbitrary in most cases. What worried me was the consequences that would follow. Master Makarov was as loose with the rules as any guild master I'd met, which was admittedly a small amount, but there were some rules he took quite seriously. This happened to be one such rule. It wasn't hard for me to put it out of my mind when I was at my apartment or training, but the guildhall was a different story altogether. Gray had gone after the trio. That had been a few days ago, and it was beginning to become suspect as to whether he would succeed on his task. People were beginning to talk about master sending someone else after them. If he were to send someone, I would be unsure of who he would choose. His initial instinct was to send Laxus, but Laxus was…less than eager. That was when Gray had volunteered.

"…am I boring you?" I jolted back to reality to see Levy staring at me.

"Um, no. I was just thinking about something and zoned out." I stated, a bit sheepishly.

"You're worried about Natsu, Happy, and Lucy aren't you?" I scoffed at her statement, "Yeah, cause you normally grip your glass hard enough to turn your knuckles white." I looked down at my hand to see that she was right. "You know, you are allowed to worry about them. I am. Hell, the whole guild is."

I rolled my eyes, "Fine, I'm worried. It's hard not to be when that's all anyone talks about."

"You do realize we were just having a conversation about something else when you zoned out to think about them." She pointed out.

Again I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, yeah." I silently scraped at the side of my wooden mug with my thumbnail for a moment, "So what do you think is going to happen to them?"

She shrugged, "It depends who you ask. Master can be unpredictable with his punishments. Maybe he lets them off with a warning. Some people think they might get kicked out of the guild. I mean, think about it; what example would it set if he did nothing. Everyone would start taking on S-class quests." She leaned back in her chair and put her index finger to her lips, like she always did when she was thinking, "They put master Makarov in a tough spot."

"Well what do you think?" Of all the people in the guild, I admired Levy for her analytical approach. It was a trait that not many possessed.

She took a moment to think, "I would have them scrub the entire guildhall from top to bottom. They wouldn't be allowed to take any jobs until they finished. Once they did finish, I'd have them do it again."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "You're evil…I love it." She gave me a devilish smirk and a wink, which elicited a chuckle from me. "Of course, that's assuming they come back."

She gave me a questioning look, "What do you mean?"

I took a deep breath. I really didn't want to say it but I felt like it needed to be said, "Taking S-class quests is banned for a reason. They are dangerous. There's a chance it might be too much for them to handle."

Her look sobered, "Don't talk like that." She blinked a little too fast, betraying what she was feeling.

"I don't want to, but that's why I'm worried. Makarov will punish them for it, but I don't think he'll do something drastic. Just think, Natsu is strong, but we don't know how tough this job is, and there's also Happy and Lucy. Lucy is new to the guild and Happy isn't exactly a fighter. I just…don't want anything bad to happen to them."

Her expression softened, "They'll be okay. They have Gray going to back them up too. You know, before he drags them back in a fit of shouts and tears." Despite myself, I smiled at the thought, "Wow, that's what cheers you up?" she rolled her eyes and laughed.

"What're you two talking about? Anything juicy?" Cana said as she walked over carrying four full mugs of booze in each hand. If her alcohol tolerance and card skills weren't talent enough, she certainly had mastered the art of carrying as many cups as possible in her hands. I honestly couldn't understand the physics behind how she made it work.

"Wow Cana, you didn't bring any for us?" I joked.

"Har har. If you must know, four are for me, one is for you, and three are for Levy." Cana explained, making a face at me.

Levy shot me a confused look before turning to Cana, "I'm sorry, why are three for me?"

"Levy, I'm glad you asked. I originally intended for two to be for each of you, but after that barb I've decided to give one of his to you." Cana said as she divvied up the mugs.

Levy laughed sheepishly, "That's okay, I'm not much of a drinker. He can have it back."

"And we're going to change that. Drink up, girl." Cana said, raising a glass. We all clinked glasses and took a long drink. "So seriously, what were you talking about?"

"We were talking about Natsu, Happy, and Lucy." I replied.

Cana groaned and drained the entirety of her mug, "I am so tired of everyone talking about it. They'll be fine. Gray will bring them back, and Makarov will make their lives miserable for about a week, then everything will go back to being normal."

"Well dang, you just have everything figured out, don't you Cana?" I asked in jest.

"Damn straight" she replied un-ironically. "I should write a book."

"I'm not sure the world is ready for that, Cana." Levy said, laughing into her mug.

Cana shook her head furiously, "No, no, no. You aren't hearing me…I'm going to write the best story Fiore has ever heard!"

"Read" I chimed in.

"Read! The best story Fiore has ever read!" Cana shouted, motioning her arms through the air.

Levy and I laughed, "Cana, you're drunk." Levy said.

"I may be drunk, but you're an A-cup, and tomorrow I'll be sober." Cana said, smiling at her own drunken wit. Levy spit out her drink and turned bright red. I, who was too shocked to laugh, also turned bright red.

"It's good to see that some guild members are still able to enjoy themselves, given the guild's current circumstance." Erza said as she approached the table. I hadn't noticed her walking towards us, and by the way Levy jumped, I would assume she hadn't either; Cana looked like she neither knew nor cared. As she got to the table, Erza eyed the drink in Cana's hand, "Cana, what did I say about your drinking?" she asked sternly.

"Oh, don't worry. It's light beer." Cana replied, as if that made it better. Erza opened her mouth to say something, but must've decided it wasn't worth it and shook her head before turning to me,

"Have you heard of Galuna Island?" she asked.

"Galuna Island? Yeah." I responded skeptically.

"What have you heard about it?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, "To never go to Galuna Island. At all. Ever. They were quite emphatic about that. Why do you ask?"

"Because we're going to Galuna Island." She gave me a wicked smile.

"Well that sounds like a terrible idea. When do we leave?" I asked between gulps.

"As soon as you can be ready."

I looked to Levy, "Hold my beer." I handed my mug to her and stood up, "Ready" Erza narrowed her eyes at me skeptically, "My apartment is on the way to the road that leads to Hargeon; I can pick up anything I need on the way out of town." I explained.

"Hold up," Levy interjected, "You aren't even going to ask why shes's taking you to Galuna Island?" she turned to Erza as Cana stealthily nabbed my mug from Levy's hand, "Why are you two going to Galuna Island?"

"We're going to retrieve Happy, Lucy, Natsu, and if need be, Gray." Erza told her.

"Okay…but why do you need Casteel?" Levy inquired.

"Because rumors suggest that the curse on Galuna Island is demonic in nature" I explained, "At least, I assume that's why you want to take me along."

"Correct. We don't know what we'll be walking into, and while I am confident that I can handle anything that may come up on my own, you have expertise that may be able to provide insight on the curse." I shrugged at Erza's comment. While it was true that my mother had warned me about Galuna Island many times, I was somewhat excited. It's not every day that I got an opportunity to tag along with Erza on a quest like this. As long as she didn't disembowel me on the way there, it should be fun. "Now, if you're ready, let us depart."

lll

Hargeon port was about a day's travel away by train. True to my word, I had grabbed a small bag from my apartment and we had made our way to the train station. It had been a couple hours since the train had departed. Erza and I sat in our cabin on the train. It had been fairly silent, aside from a few bars of small talk, and we both spent the majority of the time staring out the window. I didn't mind the quiet. To be perfectly honest, it was somewhat awkward being alone with Erza. She fooled most people with her hard demeanor, but in truth she was a bit socially awkward. It wasn't always apparent because she portrayed such confidence, but if you paid attention, you could see it in the way she interacted with the train station workers, and strangers in general. I hadn't decided yet whether or not she was uncomfortable with this fact. I held an internal debate: if she was being quiet because she didn't know what to say, then I would be more than happy to help bridge the gap; but, if she was enjoying the silence, I wouldn't want to pester her with conversation for no reason. I was having trouble determining which it was. Eventually I came to the conclusion that there was more to be gained by at least attempting conversation, than what would be lost by starting a boring conversation.

"So Erza," I started, grabbing her attention from the scenery outside the train, "What was your life like before you joined Fairy Tail?"

Her eyes widened and returned to normal in an instant, "That…is a long story." She seemed to start past me as she avoided the question.

I looked to the left and right for dramatic effect, "It's a long train ride."

"One I'd rather not talk about." She had a threatening edge in her reply. I nodded. I mentally chalked my mission up to a failure, before going back to looking out the window. Rather watch the scenery run by, I found myself staring at her reflection in the window. She was biting her lip and had a faraway look in her eye.

"That was rude," I looked back at her face as she addressed me, "It's not that I don't trust you or don't want to speak to you. That's just a part of me that I've put away."

I nodded, "I understand." Silence permeated the cabin. I couldn't think of anything to say, so I let the emptiness hang in the air.

"I remember when you first came to Fairy Tail." I carefully watched her speak through the broken silence.

"For the first few days you didn't talk to anyone. Well, you would speak, but not really. It looked as though you were just going through the motions. It reminded me of when I first came to the guild."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes. However, I was a bit more stubborn than you were. I wouldn't speak to anyone, under any circumstance."

"How did you get past that?"

"Gray actually confronted me by the riverside. He was so upset. He thought that I didn't want to be part of the guild. He started yelling at me, goading me into a confrontation, but I just ended up crying, which of course made him feel bad." She laughed at the memory.

I laughed with her, "That sounds like him."

"Yes it does." She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes at me as if studying me, "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"How did you get over your…" she looked up as if thinking, "…shyness?"

I chuckled, "That's one word for it. Uh, well, it was pride, I guess?"

"How do you mean?" she gave me a perplexed look.

"I just felt that I was better than sitting in a corner, feeling sorry for myself. I felt that I deserved more, and that it was a disservice to myself." I shrugged, feeling a bit odd trying to explain it aloud.

"I'm impressed that you had that level of self-esteem at such a young age." She tented her fingers as she spoke.

I shrugged, "It's not that big a deal, honestly."

She chuckled, "Stop trying to be humble. It doesn't suit you."

"Oh yeah? Why are you always telling me what does and does not suit me?" I playfully interrogated.

"Maybe I know you better than you know yourself."

"Doubtful."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really." We held a quick staring contest before the train lurched to a stop at one of the stations, breaking our faux-competition. "Erza?"

"Yes?"

I wasn't sure how to approach the topic, but I felt it needed to be discussed, "What do you think will happen to Natsu, Happy, and Erza?"

She bristled, "I don't know, but this is a very serious offense. I wouldn't be surprised if master Makarov banished them from the guild."

I was taken aback by her harshness, "Come on, you don't mean that. They did this out of idiocy, not spite. He'll make their lives hell for a while, and then we'll all get over it."

"Idiocy is one of the worst crimes a guild member can be guilty of; it can kill guilds." The joking Erza from a few moments ago was long gone, replaced by her draconian doppelganger. I mentally kicked myself for asking my question in the first place.

"So what are you going to do when we find them?"

"Whatever is necessary. Even if I must use force to bring them back." She sat like a statue, cold and uncompromising.

"How much force are you willing to use." I didn't want to know the answer, but I felt compelled to ask.

"As much is necessary." I nodded at her comment and the two of us went back to staring out the window.

lll

As the name suggests, Galuna Island is, in fact, an island. Meaning it was surrounded by water. Meaning Erza and I had to rent a boat from the harbor to get to the island. We ended up with what I could best describe as a sailing canoe. I was clueless when it came to sailing, so I let Erza handle that. I wasn't as bad as Natsu, but I boats were definitely not my idea of a good time. The sea air was nice and all, but my skin burned easily, and I didn't exactly like water. I suppose that's an exaggeration. I didn't mind water itself, and I rather enjoyed rain; I just didn't like large collections of it, especially the ocean. It was because of this distaste that I had my head over the side of the boat, staring skeptically into the water abyss beneath us.

"Casteel!" Erza's voice woke me from my trance. I looked up at her in alarm.

She looked at me from the other end of the boat, eyebrow raised and arms crossed, "Did you hear a word I said to you?"

"Uhhh, no?" I responded sheepishly.

A knowing expression crossed her face and her mouth contorted in amusement, "I forgot you were afraid of water."

I faced her with defiance in my eyes, "I am not afraid of water. I just don't like the sea." I narrowed my eyes at her, silently cursing how well known my distaste was.

"Don't worry, I'm a strong swimmer. If you fall off the boat, I'll rescue you. As long as you don't mind being a damsel in distress that is." Her smile mocked me.

"I can swim! I just – ugh, listen. The sea is salty and dirty. Fish live, defecate, and fornicate in it. Whenever I go in the sea I am wet and miserable, smelling like fish piss, and whenever I dry I still smell like fish piss, and my clothes are all crusted with salt. And don't get me started on seaweed. I _hate _seaweed." She laughed at my outburst, I felt patronized, but also was glad I could make her laugh, so I chalked it up to a zero sum. Besides, I could see the humor in it.

"So is that why you blew up that lake?" again with the lake, always with the lake. I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger. I was about to reply when I saw noticed something.

"Erza…" I said, pointing behind her. She turned to follow my finger and saw the ship approaching us. What made matters worse was the fact that they flew pirate colors. I guess this sailing trip was about to get more interesting.

"Pirates" she growled, "If they are looking for a fight, we'll give it to them." She stood up and requipped into her heaven's wheel armor. I tried not to notice how much of her torso it left exposed, but failed.

I gently grabbed her wrist, "Erza…let me handle this." She turned and looked at me like I was crazy. "Just trust me, there might be a way we can work this out to our advantage." Her eyes shone with defiance at first, but then she nodded her approval. My word, she didn't like relinquishing control.

Soon the ship was upon us. The pirates started shouting at us, and particularly at Erza. They lowered a rope and ordered us to climb up it. I told Erza to play along, which she was reluctant too, but followed my lead anyways. I climbed up first and pulled myself onto the deck. A couple pirates tried grabbing me, but I sent a current running through my body, jolting them away from me. Erza climbed up after me, still in her heaven's wheel armor. She was greeted with a concert of lecherous grins, which didn't seem to affect her in the slightest. One pirate reached over to grab her, but I intercepted his hand, twisted it until I heard a crack and delivering a swift punch to the jaw that knocked him unconscious. I took a few steps forward, intentionally creating space between myself and everyone else on deck.

One pirate, dressed a bit more opulently than the rest, whom I assumed him to be the captain, stepped forward, "Ye be in no small amount of trouble now, me hardies. We be the–"

"Let's negotiate terms." I interrupted, not in the mood to hear any grandstanding.

The pirate captain was taken aback my display, "Who do you think ye be to make demands o me? The way I be seeing it, ye are outnumbered and be havin no leverage."

I snapped my fingers and a great bolt of lightning struck from the sky to where I stood. Electricity crackled across my body in a threatening manner. The blast seared the wood beneath my feet and startled all of the pirates on deck. Following my example, floating swords positioned themselves at the throats of every pirate present, the captain included. Erza may have been reluctant to dance, but she made for a good partner.

"I don't like repeating myself. Since you pissed me off, I'll just tell you what you're going to do. You are going to take us to Galuna Island—"

"Galuna Island?! Ye must be crazy!" the captain interjected.

"Interrupt me again and the next bolt of lightning will strike you and I'll be having this conversation with the first mate." The captain gulped and said nothing. Taking this as a token of understanding, I continued, "You will take us to Galuna Island, wait for us to finish our business there, and then you will take us back to Hargeon Port. Our business will then be concluded and you can go about your plundering way. Do you understand?" the captain nodded slowly. "Great. Then point this ship towards Galuna Island."

lll

Despite my initial assumptions, the pirates seemed to be decent people. Granted, hijacking our ship didn't make the best first impression. They were all friendly, and apparently weren't intending to do anything too terrible to us, though I had some doubts on that considering how they had looked at Erza. Speaking of Erza, it appeared that every man on the ship, excluding myself, had fallen head over heels in love with her. I couldn't blame them. I had no idea when the last time any of them had seen a woman had been, and Erza did cut an impressive figure.

It didn't take long for Galuna Island to come into view. I stood at the front of the ship (there was probably a nautical term for it, but I didn't know it), enjoying the wind in my hair, and watched the island grow bigger on the horizon.

"I would expect to find you cowering on the lower decks, away from all sight of the water." Erza's voice proclaimed from behind me as she joined me in leaning against the railing.

I shrugged, "It doesn't seem so bad from up here."

She chuckled, "I'll make a sailor out of you, yet."

"There's never enough seamen in the navy, I suppose." She gave me an odd look and I realized what the homophone of seamen was, and what the misnomer implied. "That sounded different in my head," I admitted.

She laughed as I blushed, "You will find no judgement from me. Your proclivities are your own."

My blush intensified, "That's not—ugh, no." I bowed my head in embarrassment.

She patted me on the shoulder, "I'm merely joking with you."

"Oh, she jokes now? I must be rubbing off on you. I'll be sure not to tell anyone at the guild, or they might stop taking you seriously."

"That would never happen."

"I don't know. One of these days, you'll be walking through the guild with face paint and a clown nose, cracking jokes and driving a tiny car."

She gave me a mischievous look that worried me, "We're getting close to the island."

I looked towards the island. We couldn't be much more than a half mile away, "Yeah, we'll probably be docking—" I never got to finish my statement because she grabbed me and threw me off the side of the ship. I sailed through the air before crashing into the water below. I was equal parts irritated and scared. I looked up toward the ship to see Erza dive off the same side she threw me. She landed about a dozen feet from me. "What was that?!" I yelled as she surfaced.

She spit out some water and laughed, "You seemed to be enjoying the sea so much that I thought you'd enjoy swimming the rest of the way." I gave her a blank stare as I tread water. The ship was almost completely past us at this point and would be docking any moment. I sighed and wordlessly started swimming towards the shore.

lll

Erza was a much better swimmer than I was, so she reached the shore awhile before me. I was still upset about her throwing me overboard, but I was starting to get over it. I took my jacket and shirt off and wrung them both off before shaking myself dry as much as possible. I looked at my still sopping clothes and didn't even bother to put them back on. Erza hadn't waited for me on the shore, so I had to follow the footprints in the sand to track her down. Eventually, I found her. The scene I stumbled onto was mind-boggling. There was a giant, unconscious rat, what looked like a downed golem, some woman with pink hair that I didn't recognize. Most alarmingly, I saw Erza standing over a kneeling Lucy, holding a sword to her throat, with a very scared Happy hovering above. I froze for a moment, trying to take in the scene

"ERZA?!" I cried out in confusion and panic.


	6. Chapter 6

I own nothing

I was so done with this shit. I had been on Galuna Island for all of half an hour before I had reached my limit. Erza had threatened Happy and Lucy, two of our friends and guild mates, at sword point, before tying them up. No one knew where Natsu was. She then dragged all of us to the refugee shelter that was passing for a village, because their actual village had been melted. Because apparently that's a thing that can happen. At the impromptu village, we found Gray, passed out after having the tar beaten out of him by some "Cold Emperor." As if melting villages and silly nicknames weren't enough, everyone at the village was a demon…kind of. They looked human, give or take a few appendages, but they claimed that they were being turned into demons by the moon, because that makes sense. They all had the dull black aura that was characteristic of demons. Of course, I was the only person who noticed this, because I'm the only one who can see demon auras, courtesy of my devil slayer magic. This meant that everyone was swarming me, looking for some insight into what the hell was going on, but as far as I could tell, their aura was identical to that of demons. To top it all off, I had been pained by a continuous headache that start almost as soon as I stepped forth on the island. And my clothes were wet and salty. Oh, did I mention that Erza had turned into a homicidal maniac, because that happened too.

Currently, I was sitting in the tent Gray was recovering in, frantically rubbing my temples in an attempt to assuage my headache. I had been here for about an hour. The main reason I was staying in his tent was to hide from the mob of villagers who wanted me to heal them with my devil slayer magic. The last person who had asked me ended up running away in fear after I asked him what part of devil slayer made him think I healed demons.

A groan alerted me to the fact that Gray was stirring from his sleep. He blinked several times and propped himself up on his elbows. He noticed me sitting on a crate near him, and I waved sardonically.

"Casteel? What are you doing here?" He gave me an expression of the utmost confusion.

I sighed, "I find myself wondering that too." He continued to give me a puzzled look, "I was sent to bring all of you back."

He stood all the way up, "We can't leave. Not yet. These people need our help. They're—"

"Turning into demons, yeah. Did you really think I, of all people, wouldn't notice that?"

"Then you know how serious it is." He looked at me almost pleadingly.

I sighed again, "Yeah, I agree with you. We can't just leave them like this. Did you at least find out what was causing this?"

He looked away, clearly feeling something strong within himself, "There's a demon on this island: Deliora."

"Deliora?!" I screamed, "Like, Book of Zeref Deliora?!" he nodded, confirming my fears. I rested my face in my hands and let loose a muffled scream. Just when I thought this day couldn't get any worse, "Hold up," I said, trying to make sense of the situation, "I thought Deliora was killed."

"It was, in a way." Something seemed off by the way he spoke.

"Really not in the mood for riddles, Gray." I huffed.

"I'm trying to explain, dammit!" he yelled, I waved my hand to motion for him to continue, "When I was a kid, Deliora destroyed my village, killing everyone except me. A wizard named Ur found me in the rubble and took me in. She taught me how to use maker magic." He sat on a crate across from me and looked at his hands, "I wanted revenge, so I went to confront Deliora on my own. She followed me and gave her life to imprison Deliora in ice." His breath hitched, and for a second I thought I saw the twinkle of a tear in his eye, "Her other student, Lyon, always wanted to surpass her. It was his dream. When she gave her life, he felt that he was robbed of his dream. He brought Deliora here, and is using a spell called the moon drip to melt the ice, so he can beat Deliora to prove that he's surpassed Ur." His demeanor made sense now. He was confronting his own demons on this island.

I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder, "We'll stop him. For Ur."

"Yeah…" he continued to stare at his palms. After a moment, he looked up as if he just remembered something, "Wait, where are Natsu, Lucy, and Happy?" Ah, shit. He wasn't going to like this.

lll

I slowly walked into the tent where Erza was holding our guild mates. I had my hands raised, and Gray was two steps behind me. I saw Erza sternly looking at us as we entered,

"Its fine, everything's fine. No need to stab and/or threaten anyone." Poor Lucy and Happy looked terrified in their bonds.

She ignored me and looked directly at Gray, "Gray, why haven't you completed your task? Tell me you haven't abandoned your sense of duty and are pursuing this foolish quest as well." I eyed the sword in her hand and was sure to stay between her and him, all the while realizing how idiotic it was.

Ignoring my attempts to shield him, Gray walked right past me and up to her, "Erza, you've seen what's happening here. We need to help these people." She put her sword up to his chest. I took a step to intervene, but Gray held up a hand to halt me. He then grabbed the tip of her sword and kept it level with his own heart. I looked to the still bound Lucy and Happy in disbelief. Gray commenced a speech, and I'm sure it was very moving, but my head was spinning far too much to pay any attention to it. It must've had some kind of effect because Erza let him leave, then walked over to Lucy and Happy and cut their ropes. She exited the tent after Gray, having said absolutely nothing about what was going on.

I turned to the newly freed Happy and Lucy, "So…do we follow them?" they stared ahead for a moment before nodding in unison.

lll

We ended up following them, and learned that Erza had agreed to let us help save the island. As it were, we were heading towards the temple where the moon drip was being performed. My headache increased in intensity as we walked. I was beginning to hypothesize that the concentration of demonic energy was so great that it was causing my headache. If I wasn't in excruciating pain, I would be more excited about the implications of such a dynamic. As we walked, Gray informed us that Ur was not technically dead, but that her body had been transformed into the ice that held Deliora, only raising the stakes for him. I had heard much about Deliora from my mother. He was supposed to be one of the most dangerous demons to have ever existed, as well as one of the most violent. I hadn't seen this Lyon's power, but I doubted it would be enough to slay such a beast, and if it wasn't who knew what kind of danger the world could be in.

It was stuck in the back of my mind that if Deliora was released, I was the most qualified to deal with him. I had dealt with many powerful demons during my time at Fairy Tail, creatures that made the two demons I fought as a child look like toy soldiers, but if the rumors were true, then Deliora was on a whole other level. The prospect of having to fight such a demon both excited and terrified me. If it came down to it, I would do whatever was necessary to stop the monster. For Gray, and for everyone.

As we drew near, something became apparent. The temple we were heading to was crooked. "Gray, has the temple always been like that?" I asked skeptically,

He shook his head, "No, this must be Natsu's doing. With the temple like this, the moon's rays can't hit Deliora and melt the ice."

I scratched my chin, "Well that's…surprisingly smart." A rustling in the bushes interrupted our conversation. All of a sudden, spinning blades shot from the bushes towards us. Erza punched Lucy and Happy out of the path, while she, Gray, and I dodged them. A troupe of shrouded figures came forth, blathering something about how they wouldn't let us harm the Cold Emperor or whatnot. That nickname was beginning to really bug me. Erza, Lucy, and Happy said they could handle these idiots, while Gray and I went to stop Lyon and Deliora.

We ran towards the temple with renewed vigor. The quicker we took care of this, the less time our comrades would have to fight off Lyon's cronies. Once we reached the temple, I followed Gray's lead, hoping he knew where he was going. As we ran nearer to the center of the temple, blows and shouts could be heard to our right.

"That's probably Lyon and Natsu. Go ahead and get to Deliora. Guard that bastard to make sure no one messes with him or somehow performs the moon drip." Gray told me.

"Are you sure you don't want help with Lyon? He must be pretty powerful based on what he did to you after the first time you fought." I questioned.

"I'm sure. This is personal. Besides, since I've joined Fairy Tail I've never lost to the same person twice."

I nodded to him, "In that case, beat him senseless for me." He smirked back at me and nodded. He then pointed to the hallway that would lead me to Deliora and I ran off to leave him to his business. Part of me worried about him, but deep down, I knew he had it under control.

After a few minutes, I was rounding a curve when I ran headfirst into a figure. I bowled through him and we both skidded across the ground. I hopped to my feet and got into a defensive stance, just in case. The figure turned out to be a dog…man? It looked like an anthropomorphic dog, wearing jeans and one sock, while another hung from its neck. I had so many questions.

"What? Who are you? You aren't supposed to be here!" dog-boy yelled at me.

"I take it you're working for Lyon. Tell me how many minions he has running around and I'll let you leave unharmed."

"Hrrr," he growled. His fingernails grew to an obscene length and turned green. He then lunged at me with said nails, "I'll never tell you anything! One scratch from my claws and you'll be fast asleep." I dodged his initial swipe. Well this was a new one.

An idea came to me as I dodged another attack and pushed him backwards to create space, "Hey, before we fight…you have something on your face."

"Gaaahh, I'm not going to fall for that again!" he yelled as he stomped his foot on the ground cartoonishly. I assessed the situation. As long as I avoided his nails, I should be fine, but I wanted to end this as quickly as possible so that I could attend to my more pressing duties. Going for a quick knockout would leave me open to counterattack. The most ideal strategy would be to disable both of his arms. I'd pepper him with ranged attacks to draw him in close with a reckless charge, and then I'd incapacitate him.

I began to back up while shooting lightning bolts at him. He did a fair job of dodging while moving forward. A few grazed him, but they were merely a distraction so they weren't fully charged. After he had closed the distance he unleashed a fury of swipes. I channeled electricity into my muscles to bolt backwards 20 feet and fired a more powerful electric blast that hit him square in the chest, noticeably hurting him. He charged with less discretion this time. He stabbed his right hand towards my chest, but I sidestepped and delivered a punch to his forearm. I heard the telltale crack that I had been listening for. He howled at in pain and I took the opportunity to move inside his guard and land a spinning elbow to his face. The knocked him back a step, but as he was moving back, I grabbed his left wrist, rotated it outwards, and delivered a kick that neatly dislocated his elbow. Again, he howled, and fell to his knees, knowing he was defeated. He looked up at me with wide, teary eyes that made me feel bad, despite the fact that he was trying to revive a demon and had attacked me first.

I sheathed my right fist in lightning, "How many of Lyon's people are still in the temple?"

"I—Its just me, that creepy little guy with the mask, and Lyon. The others took out the rest of my friends." He said pitifully.

"The masked one, is he a wizard?" I asked urgently.

"I don't know. He doesn't say much to me, and I don't know what he does. Are you going to hit me again?" again with the teary eyes.

I dispersed my lightning, "No, I'm not. Just get out of here and…rethink your life." I didn't spare him another glance and started running down the hallway towards Deliora. After a few steps, the temple began to rumble and…move? One side of the hallway felt like it was being lifted up. Was it possible that the temple had righted itself from Natsu's destruction? That would mean that the moonlight would now be able to reach Deliora. I picked up my pace to go find the monster.

It took me awhile, but I finally reached an opening into a cavern. In the center of the cavern was a giant, grotesque being, encased in ice. Around him was an angry black aura, unlike anything I'd ever seen. I sighed. I really hoped this evil bastard wouldn't wake up. My headache was almost unbearable now. I looked around. I was supposed to guard Deliora, but I felt like there was more I should be doing. With another sigh, I sat on a rock protrustion and waited for something bad to happen.

It turned out that I didn't have to wait for long. I heard yells coming down from the a separate hallway, I hadn't noticed before. I readied myself for whatever was coming, but still found myself surprised when it turned out to be Natsu.

"Casteel?"

"Natsu?"

"What are you doing here?"

I sighed, "That's a very long story. What are you making such a fuss about?"

"There's this guy with a mask that fixed the temple, and I tracked him here. He reeks of lady's perfume." Natus ranted.

"Well that's…something." Suddenly, a stone ball flung itself at Natsu. He was able to punch it, shattering the ball into a thousand pieces.

"Well, well. It looks like we have a newcomer." A voice came down from above up, and we both looked up to see a green-haired troll in a mask sneering down at us. Without warning, the shattered pieces of the ball reformed themselves and smacked Natsu directly in the face, drawing shouts of rage. "Haha, my arc-of-time magic can transform any object to the state it was at any point in its existence. It's a lost magic, but then again, I'm not the only practitioner of a lost magic here, isn't that right, dragon slayer," he said looking at Natsu, "and devil slayer." He eyed the tattoo on my arm as he spoke to me. Something about this guy creeped me out. Not wanting to waste time, I shot a blast of lightning at him. My blast was intercepted by the same stone ball, which exploded, only to reform itself. Natsu leapt towards the troll, only to get hit in the chest by the stone ball and was sent careening through the cavern. So he could intercept attacks with his ball. An idea struck me,

"Storm devil lightning javelin!" I yelled, and thrust my palm forward to launch the attack at the troll. Ever since my battle with the two demons as a child, I had made a point to become as adept as possible with this technique, and had nearly mastered it by this point. As I had predicted, the stone ball intercepted my attack. However, instead of exploding, it was cut neatly in half as the bolt cleaved through it like butter and continued towards its mark. The troll was caught off guard and barely moved in time to avoid having it carve a hole through his face. Instead it cut his cheek, and lopped off a section of his hair.

His expression of surprise quickly morphed into that of amusement, "Well done, devil slayer. You're wiser than you look." To Natsu's surprise, and mine, a purple beam descended from an aperture in the ceiling of the temple and landed on the encased demon. The ice at the top of the structure began to bubble. "Haha, the moon drip ceremony commences. There is only one performing the ceremony so it may take some time, but Deliora will be free soon enough."

I turned to Natsu, "Go and take care of whomever is conducting the moon drip. I'll handle this mask wearing freak." He opened his mouth to protest, "We don't have time to argue, dammit! Just go!" he swallowed his objections and ran to follow my instructions. The troll sent his newly reformed ball flying towards Natsu, but I intercepted it with a lighting blast, "Your fight is with me." I leapt from rock to rock, gaining altitude, before I leapt at the troll, "Storm devil exorcist fist!" I yelled as my right hand became supercharged with electric blue, devil slayer energy. My fist collided with his ball, exploding it on contact. I continued on my trajectory and he leapt over a kick I threw at his head. Landing on the platform formerly occupied by him, I turned just in time to see the ball flying towards me. I had just enough time to brace myself as it impacted me, knocking me off the perch. I contorted in the air and launched myself towards where the troll had landed, determined to close the distance. He motioned to the ceiling, and a stalactite fell from the top of the cavern towards me. I twisted in the air to avoid it, and reacted just in time to punch the incoming ball out of the air. I landed far wide of my mark due to his interference. All of a sudden, a blinding blue flash came from the aperture in the ceiling. Natsu rocketed into the ground, with blue electricity coursing through his body. A feeling of dread washed over me as my body realized what was happening before my mind did. I watched as a figure descended onto the ground before us, wreathed in crackling blue energy. "Deliora must be freed." My mother yelled as devil slayer magic erupted around her.


	7. Chapter 7

A list of what I own: Not Fairy Tail

I blinked several times to make sure I wasn't imagining this. My mother had just blasted my friend into the ground and declared that we needed to unleash an incredibly powerful demon. Her head whipped towards me, as if she had just noticed my presence,

"Casteel? What are you doing here?" she asked in disbelief.

I rubbed the back of my head, deeply uncomfortable with this whole situation, "Good to see you too, mom. I'm here, along with Natsu," I motioned to my pink haired friend, who was currently picking himself out of the rubble, "along with Erza, Gray, Happy, and Lucy—actually, you haven't met Lucy. Anyways, we're here to make sure that Deliora _doesn't _get released."

"Eventually Deliora will be released, one way or another. The safest option is to have two devil slayers at the ready to kill it once it awakens." She said crossly. "Don't be ridiculous and try to stop the ceremony. We will stand by and wait for it to conclude."

"That's insane. You've heard what Deliora is capable of. What if we can't stop it? We'll have just allowed a dangerous monster to be free." I yelled back.

"What did you say?" My mother growled through clenched teeth.

"You heard me. I need to stop this." I leapt from the ground to a rock formation in an attempt to get to the aperture. I felt a heavy weight crash into my gut and was sent, flying into the ground.

"Silly boy, listen to your mother. Deliora will be released." The troll heckled as I saw the stone ball return to his side. A blast of electricity hit him from behind and sent him careening into the wall of the cave. I turned my head to see my mother, hand raised and an expression of rage on her face. She sparked with energy

"We may have similar goals, but if you lay a hand on my son, I will bathe the earth in your blood." She threatened. I had almost forgotten how scary she could be. The stone orb flew towards her at a speed I hadn't known it could reach. It was blasted out of the air, but reformed almost immediately, hitting my mother in the face.

"Natsu, go!" I yelled. He took off, shooting flames from his hands to propel him towards the ceiling. The troll sent his ball flying towards him, leaving him open to a blast from me. The blast broke his concentration, and caused his ball to falter. It looked like he was going to make it. Suddenly, a blue blur split the sky and my mother appeared before him. He flew directly into a kick that sent him tumbling back towards the earth. One unique aspect of storm devil slayer magic is its ability to use lightning to greatly augment one's speed. When utilized to its fullest effect, it was almost as instantaneous as teleportation, though with a shorter range. That was how my mother had been able to catch up to Natsu so easily.

I looked around. My mother and the troll were fighting each other, who were both fighting Natsu and I to keep us from interrupting the ceremony. This was a mess. Either Natsu or I would have to stop whomever was performing the ceremony, and while my mother and the troll provided each other a distraction, each one would prioritize stopping us over their own battle. It didn't look good. One of us would have to hold off both of them in order to allow the other to escape, but I doubted that either Natus or I had the power to do so. The ice was beginning to melt, so we didn't have much time. We had to try. Natsu had abandoned running and was helping my mother fight the troll. There was a chance I could sneak away unnoticed.

Slowly, I climbed the rock formations, making sure to stay on the side that faced away from the fighting. I leapt to a formation that reached higher, not using any magic in an attempt to stay hidden. It was slow work, but I was making progress. I was close enough that I could reach the aperture with two jumps, but I would need to use magic to do so. Steeling myself, I made the first jump. I didn't even make it halfway across before I was blasted out of the air by my mother. The attack didn't hurt, it was just meant to halt my momentum. Readjusting, I caught the ledge of another formation, and without even bothering to climb on top, I leapt to another one. In another flash, my mother appeared atop the formation directly between me and the aperture.

"When are you going to abandon this idiocy and admit that I'm right?" she was angry. Angry that I was defying her. I jumped to the wall, and used it as a springboard to try and maneuver around her. She jumped to intercept me with a punch, but I had anticipated that. I parried her punch in midair and countered with a straight right hand. Just before my strike landed, I looked at my mother and lost my nerve, pulling my punch just before it made contact. A look of shock came across her face, as if she couldn't believe I had outsmarted her, but it quickly morphed back into anger as she used my hesitation to drive her knee into my gut. She followed that strike with a superman punch and a spin kick that ricocheted me off the wall, into a rock pillar, which I bounced off with a bone rattling thud before finally meeting the ground. She landed a dozen yards from me, "I won't let you stop this. Do you really think you can beat me?" she yelled. I pushed myself to my feet. She clearly wasn't holding back, and I couldn't if I wanted to stop Deliora from being freed. I needed to do this for the villagers and for Gray.

Using her own trick, I jumped in front of her with a flash. Just as when I was younger, she stepped forward to attack my charge rather than give ground. I had thought about that spar many times over the years and had a different strategy in mind. I did a backwards handspring as soon as I halted my charge. Her attack hit empty air and she put enough force into the strike to off-balance herself. Under normal circumstances, I would use the opportunity to fire a short-ranged devil slayer blast, but I knew the attack would be ineffective on another storm devil slayer. I would have to rely on hand-to-hand combat. I jumped towards her, thrusting my knee forward into her nose. The blow stunned her and knocked her backwards a step. Instinctively, she threw a sweeping kick to cover her retreat, but I had studied for form for years, and while she was gone I had developed my own. I ducked under the kick and swept her leg out from underneath her with my own leg. Using my momentum, I spun myself around and kicked her out of the air as she fell, sending her skidding across the rough ground. She caught herself and slid to a halt. She seethed at me, with a thin stream of blood running from her nose. I knew she wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, so I got into a defensive stance and waited for her to attack.

Her assault was vicious and devastating. I couldn't do anything but block, and even then she still managed to sneak strikes through my guard. Either she had improved while she was away, or I had never watched her fight at her full strength because I had no clue her skill was this ferocious. I had no room to counterattack and I couldn't block all of her attacks. She didn't even leave me time to formulate a strategy. I was stuck. Soon she was landing more than I was blocking, and soon after that, I wasn't able to block at all. With one tremendous kick, she embedded me in the wall of the cavern. I was bruised and bloody. If I didn't have the cave wall to lean on, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stand. She walked over and stood before me.

She crossed her arms and gave me a disapproving glare, "It's a mother's right to discipline a disobedient child. Are you sufficiently discipline?" I had forgotten how patronizing she could be. That was one thing I didn't miss. I pulled myself from my rocky shackles, and stood on unsteady legs before her. I spread my arms out wide and collected energy into my hands. Furious blood electricity swelled, seemingly consuming hands. My mother sighed, "You know that attack won't be able to harm me. I'll devour it and be even stronger after, so why bother?" ignoring her, I continued to gather energy. I set my feet as solidly as I could and brought both hands together, combining the balls of energy into one

"Storm devil abyssal cannon!" I screamed as I fired a huge beam of light past my mother, across the cavern, and into the turned back of the masked troll. An explosion ripped through the cave, kicking up dirt and debris. My mother had just enough time to register shock as she realized what I had plotted, before she was forced to cover her face from the cloud of debris. I just hoped Natsu had realized what I was trying to accomplish. My heart soared as I saw Natsu rise from the cloud, heading directly for the aperture. My mother had barely enough time to react. She flashed across the cavern, tackling him out of the air and driving him into the wall. I could only imagine how surprised she would be when she realized that Natsu was only a diversion. Less than a second after she had gone to stop Natsu, I had made haste towards the aperture, myself. While I was slowed from her previous onslaught, there was no way she'd be able to react fast enough after noticing my tactic to stop me.

I was a few feet away from my goal when a familiar object slammed into my hip. It knocked me off my trajectory, and instead of soaring through the opening, my head caught the corner of the aperture. I reacted quick enough to grab the edge. I hung there for only a moment before the stone ball that had been tormenting me smashed into my arm, sending me falling back to the ground once again. I hit the ground with an anticlimactic thud. Far off to my left stood the troll, looking a bit ragged, probably from my surprise attack. My plan was almost perfect. The only miscalculation was how long it would take him to recover. I felt broken. That plan was the best that I had, and even that had failed. My body was pushed past its limits, and my mind had run out of ideas. We had lost.

A chorus of clashing light peeking into my field of view. I turned my head to see Natsu fighting my mother. He was taking a hellacious beating, just like I had, but he refused to give up. It reminded me of when Erza had called him and Gray the strongest wizards in Fairy Tail that day. I didn't know how Gray was doing, but Natsu was sure doing that mantle justice. As I lay contemplating that, another memory flashed into my mind. Erza had said that the only person who could prove that I was stronger was me. My body may be injured, my mind may be exhausted, and my will may be broken, but my pride still stood; and because my pride remained standing, so shall I. Painfully and deliberately, I pulled myself to my feet. If not for the aching pain in my legs it would feel as though I were floating. If I was going to lose, I would give everything I had and more, because that was the only course of action suitable for a Fairy Tail wizard.

A terrible roar tore through the cave. The ice that encased, Deliora cracked and splintered, before giving way completely. Chunks fell to the earth and liquefied, pooling on the ground around my feet. I couldn't help but think of Gray's master as I gazed down at the water I stood in. It was warm in a way I couldn't express. I felt devastated for him. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. There was only one thing to do now. I opened my eyes to see the roaring monster, free for the first time in a decade. My mother had ceased her assault on Natsu, and turned towards Deliora, seemingly observing him. The troll cackled with glee, and shouted exposition about how he would use Deliora's power…at least until my mother unleashed a bolt of lightning that knocked him through a rock formation and buried him in rubble. She never had liked talkative people.

I stumbled over to where Natsu lay on the ground and helped him to his feet. He too was in bad shape. We leaned on each other to support ourselves.

"That masked idiot doesn't know what he's talking about." Natsu said suddenly. "Controlling a monster wasn't going to make him powerful. Friends who watch your back is what makes you powerful."

I nodded, "You may not be smart, but you sure can be wise, Dragneel." I tried to straighten up, "You know what we have to do now, right?"

"Beat this monster's ass, save the village, have a big meal, and go home."

I shrugged, "You forgot about Erza beating our asses, but other than that, yeah."

He looked at me in trepidation, "Erza is here?" I nodded, "Well, shit." He added.

"Well, shit indeed." I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Gray. He bent over and cupped a small handful of water that ran through his fingers. My heart broke for him. That water was all that was left of his master. I couldn't imagine what he felt. A white haired man that I didn't recognize rose from the ground near Gray and said something I couldn't hear. Whatever he was saying was interrupted by a quick strike to the neck from Gray. Gray walked forward and stood in a strange stance. The water started to bend around him and an unknown wind picked up. Natsu cursed and ran towards him. I had no clue what was going on but I followed Natsu. We were both significantly slowed by our injuries, and it appeared we weren't going to get there before he completed whatever spell he was working on.

Then something strange happened. My mother casually walked in front of Gray. He appeared confused, and justifiably so.

"Don't throw your life away." She said. Natsu and I had come close enough to be able to overhear her.

"I need to stop Deliora. This is the only way." Gray growled.

"You don't need to worry about stopping the demon. He'll be dead in a moment, anyways." Her words caught me by surprise. I looked to Deliora to try to discern what she meant. Deliora looked just as evil and powerful as I had feared. Hold on…that furious black aura that had surrounded him earlier had diminished. It was little more than a smoldering glow. I couldn't understand how that had come to be, but she was right. Deliora was dying. The fading monster aimed one last mighty punch towards Gray and my mother, but it was intercepted by a lightning blast from my mother that shattered his entire arm. The cracks rippled throughout his entire body, and he began to crumble to pieces before our very eyes. "Who sealed Deliora in that iced shell?" my mother asked to no one in particular.

"Gray's master, Ur." I responded, taking cautious steps towards her.

She nodded at the information, "Ur must've been an impressive wizard. The shell drained Deliora's power until he was but a husk." She turned to Gray, "Be proud of your master and honor her." Gray put his hand over his eyes and tears began to pour down his cheeks. I made eye contact with my mother and motioned with my head for her to give him space. She wordlessly acquiesced, and I walked over to put a hand on Gray's shoulder. He shuddered as he sobbed and he mumbled a plea of thanks to Ur, but other than that, neither of us said anything.

lll

As it turned out, Erza, Happy, and Lucy had been above us on top of the temple for some time. The dog boy from earlier had performed the moon drip all by himself, despite his mangled arms. I felt a pang of irresponsibility for not leaving him unconscious, but I suppose it worked out in the end. We met up outside the temple. Natsu, Lucy, and Happy were all celebrating their completion of an S-class quest, only for Erza to remind them that the quest was to break the curse, and they hadn't accomplished that. To be perfectly honest, I was surprised that Erza hadn't laid into them the moment she saw them. She seemed more focused on helping the villagers, which was a stark contrast to how she had been behaving earlier. There was also a look in her eye that I couldn't decipher, and I couldn't help but worry about her. Lyon ended up not knowing anything about what had happened to the villagers and seemed to think they were up to no good.

Of course there was also the matter of my mother lecturing the majority of us. She lectured me for not listening to her, Natsu, Lucy, and Happy for taking on a quest beyond their means. She left Gray and Erza alone. Lyon received the worst of it, with her threatening to incinerate him if he ever attempted something this stupid again. Apparently he had asked for her help in freeing Deliora years ago, but she had refused. She had begun to have the same headaches I had, and determined them to be the release of a powerful demonic energy on the island. She came to investigate and learned of how close Deliora was to being free, and then came to the conclusion that it wasn't safe to let Deliora be with Lyon having found a viable way to release him, so she resolved to kill the demon once and for all. I wasn't pleased with getting my ass kicked so thoroughly when Deliora was going to be a non-issue anyways, but I had to admit that it felt good to stand up to my mother for once.

As we were walking back to camp, Lucy approached me, "So that lady is a devil slayer too? Do you know her from somewhere?"

I internally groaned, "That's my mother."

Her jaw dropped, "That's your mom?! But she looks so young! Although you two do look alike, but I'd think she was your older sister rather than your mom." She tilted her head as she looked at my mother walking ahead of us, "She seems kind of mean, no offense. What was growing up with her like?"

I sighed, "Lucy…if you want to talk about this some other time, I'd be happy to indulge you. It's been a long day, and I've also had the tar beaten out of me…by her, I might add, so could we not talk about this right now?"

She backed up a step and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to pry, I was just curious!" she continued to apologize whilst I insisted it was okay for the majority of the way back to the camp.

When we arrived, there was no one in sight. We stumbled around the camp for a while before one of the villagers came running up to us to report that the village had been miraculously restored. Though I had never seen the village either before or after it had been melted, there was, in fact, a fully formed village, not far from the camp. I couldn't help but wonder what had happened. It finally dawned on me, that this would be right in line with the magic that the troll wielded. I had no idea why he would restore the village, or even if he did, but it gave me an uneasy feeling regardless.

Upon our arrival, a short man (demon?) approached us and asked us why we haven't destroyed the moon, which made no sense to me, but I was beyond questions at this point. Erza then gathered all of the villagers, and began to ask them a multitude of questions about the ruins. At one point she fell into a pitfall trap that had been placed at the village entrance for some reason (Again, no questions). Following her interrogation, she requipped into an armor I had never seen before, and declared that she was going to destroy the moon. I face palmed at her declaration, and hoped this wouldn't end horribly for everyone involved.

**Note: I really didn't want to end the chapter here, but if I didn't this chapter would end up being extra-long and the next one would be extra short and disjoined. Also, I have mid-terms this week, and won't have access to a computer next week. I'm going to try to get another chapter out this week, before going dark all of next week, but no promises.**


	8. Chapter 8

I'm baaaaaaack! Sorry for the delay, I hope this makes up for it.

I wish I could say that I owned Fairy Tail, but that would be a lie.

lll

I watched in horror at the scene unfolding before me. Erza was about to make an attempt to destroy the moon. What's more, she was appearing to take this seriously, asking for help and plotting out the trajectory. Logic told me that it wasn't possible to destroy the moon by throwing a spear at it, I mean, how could it? At the same time, I wasn't used to Erza failing. If it was Natsu, I would chalk it up to misplaced confidence, but that was not how Erza operated. What if she was actually capable of destroying the moon? What if she had gone crazy? I looked around to try to find a sympathetic face to voice my concerns. I met Gray's gaze. He looked just as shocked as I was. We nonverbally discussed how insane these proceedings were with frantic motions.

It appeared as though Erza's planning had ceased. She and Natsu got into position, and launched the spear towards the moon. I watched with baited breath as the spear flew higher and higher before hitting an invisible ceiling and shattering it. In that moment I questioned everything I knew about astronomy. Fine shards fell from the sky and landed around us, but the moon stood, proud in the sky. The whole village looked to Erza for some type of explanation of what was happening. She obliged us by explaining that the moon drip had caused a shell to form above the island that changed the color of the island and had changed the villagers. When none of the villagers turned back to human form, she told us that they had always been demons, and thus it had been their memory that had been affected, not their bodies. Furthermore, the temple had been hallowed ground, and demons were unable to tread on its soil, which explained why none of the villagers had investigated the temple. I had no clue that the moon drip would affect demons in such a way, but everything else Erza had said made sense.

Afterwards, a demon had shown up, claiming to be the chief's deceased son. I hadn't known anything about the chief having a son, so it didn't mean much to me, although Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy all seemed spooked by the occurrence. The son sprouted wings and flew into the sky, with the chief flying after him. To my own chagrin, I couldn't help but smile at how happy the chief was to see his son alive again. At the same time, the sight made me a little bitter. It would've been nice to receive a similar greeting, rather than a beating from my mother.

As if I had been heard by some spiteful god, I heard the distinct crackled of the air sparking from somewhere nearby. A pang of dread filled me as realization dawned on me. I turned desperately and screamed for her to stop, but my mother had already fired a bolt of electricity. My eyes widened in horror as I watched the bolt tear through the night sky until it reached the chief, cleaving him in two, just above the waist. The world went silent and time stood still as I ran to stop the second blast, ignoring the faces twisted in horror as I did. I tackled my mother to the ground, throwing off her aim and saving the chief's son from meeting the same fate as his father.

"STOP" I pleaded with my mother as she struggled to get out from underneath me. A few elbows to my gut gave her enough room to kick me off her. She stood, eyes smoldering with rage. I heard the telltale roar of thunder as the weather changed above.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT WE ARE?!" she seethed as she took a threatening step towards me, brilliant blue electricity flashing all around her as she came, "We kill demons. We do not befriend them. If you dare to try and stop me again, I'll send you to hell with them." I stayed on the ground. She had always scared me, in her own way, but this was the first time I had ever been afraid that she would actually kill me.

"You won't lay a hand on him or them as long as we're here." It took me a moment to register the voice as Natsu's. He, Erza, Gray, Lucy, and even Happy had surrounded my mother, though the latter two looked more terrified than I felt.

"He's our friend and guildmate. If you pick a fight with him, you pick a fight with all of us." Gray added.

"They're right. So I suggest you leave this island. Now." Erza spoke, her voice hardening with her final word.

My mother looked around at my guildmates, lips carved into a sneer, "Do you really think you can stop me?"

"Yes, because we're wizards of the Fairy Tail guild, and we can do anything we set our minds to." I said as I rose to my feet. The support of my friends giving me the courage to stand up to her."

My mother narrowed her eyes at me, "You doubt my power?"

I shook my head, "No. Merely your tactics." Her eyes widened for a moment, before returning to their prior state. I knew that expression. She knew I had a plan and was trying to figure out what I could possibly know that she didn't. After a moment, I decided to clue her in. "I don't have any doubt that you could overpower all of us individually, maybe even as a group. But, you forget that I use the same type of magic as you do, and that I can eat your lightning. If you try to use your magic against my friends, I can eat it, making your attacks useless, while they are free to use theirs against you, and believe me when I tell you that they are no pushovers. If you are limited to using your martial skill against them, there is no way you can beat them all at once." She knew I was right. She looked like a feral animal caught in a cage, looking at each of us as if she would tear our throats out with her teeth if we so much as looked away. "But…if you leave now, we will let you go. No one else has to get hurt." I stepped to the side, breaking the circle around her, and giving her a path to leave.

Reluctantly, she walked past me, but stopped a bit past me, "From this point on, you are no longer my son."

"I stopped being your son the moment you killed a man in cold blood." I answered.

"I didn't kill a man. I killed a demon. A rotting vestibule of tainted magic that will destroy anyone that isn't willing to do the same to it." I didn't look back as she walked from the village, afraid of what I would do if I did.

lll

The sudden death of their chief had brought a despondent chill to the village that quickly quelled the otherwise joyous occasion. I must say, for all the ruthless efficiency I had witnessed from the demons in combat, they were just as efficient with their politics. It hadn't taken long for the village to appoint Bobo, the chief's son, to take his recently deceased father's place. Apparently, it was customary to have a celebration to honor the passing of the old chief and welcome the new chief. From what I understood, this was usually to take place within a few days of the crowning of the new chief, but the new chief wanted to celebrate the return of their memories, as well as thank us, so he moved the ceremony to the same night. It seemed a bit morbid to me, but I couldn't deny the logic in it.

The roar of solemn revelry could be heard from where I sat, several hundred feet outside of the village walls. I didn't feel right about celebrating with them considering my mother is the one who killed the former chief. The guilt ate away at my gut as I sat on the side of my penitent hill, gazing up at the moon. I couldn't help but feel a kinship with the celestial body. Through the actions of another, both it and I had brought grief upon the village. Logically, I understood that it was not my fault that my mother had killed the chief, but that didn't change what I felt. A person that I shared blood with had shed the blood of one who shared blood with the current chief. In a way it was if I had directly spilled the blood of Bobo.

The crunching of grass alerted me to the presence of another. I didn't dare to guess who it might be, just as I didn't care. The visage of Gray Fullbuster sat next to me upon my hill. We both watched the moon in silence for some time.

"I really thought that Erza would try to destroy the moon." He spoke at last.

"I didn't know if the prospect of her going crazy or of her actually destroying the moon scared me more."

He chuckled beside me, "She's always been a little crazy." Another silence followed.

"How are you holding up?" I asked.

He turned his head to face me with a questioning look, "You're asking me that?"

Without looking at him, I nodded, "I am. You've been through a lot today. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I could say the same to you."

Again I nodded, "You could, but if I ask you first, then I don't have to talk about my own day."

"Do you not want to talk about it?"

"I haven't decided."

He sighed, "I'm doing about as well as could be expected. Deliora is dead. That's good. Lyon is pacified, also good." He went quiet for a moment, "I just wish I could thank Ur for all that she's done for me. She's saved me from Deliora twice now, and given everything she had in the process."

Finally I looked towards him only to see him looking back at the moon, "I mean, you said that she was still alive as the iced shell. Magic is strange. I wouldn't be surprised if she had some sort of awareness. I'm sure seeing you again, all grown up, would've been enough for her."

"Yeah. Maybe."

"Plus she got the opportunity to save your sorry ass again. I'm sure it was nice having something to do after 10 years of guarding that evil dick."

I could've sworn I saw the ghost of a smile on his lips, "She probably would've said something snarky, then given some uplifting speech about how proud she was of me."

"Well, I guess you'll have to settle for me giving a very watered down version of the same thing."

"Yeah. I really did get the raw end of that deal." We both laughed, momentarily drowning out the distant sounds of the celebration. "You should come back to the village and enjoy the festivities."

I paused, "I think I'll pass."

"Any particular reason?"

I gave him a sideways glance, "You know why."

He sighed, "It wasn't your fault. You aren't your mother. In fact, you saved Bobo's life."

"It feels a little different over here."

"You aren't her."

"I know."

He put a hand on my shoulder, "No. You don't" I looked him in the eye, "You've spent so much time trying to be her." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off, "Shut up. Yes, you have. Ever since you joined the guild, you've been trying to become as strong as her and act like her, but you aren't her; the whole situation back at the village is proof of that. She couldn't see past what she believes, but you could and you acted. Stop trying to be her, because you can be better than her."

I stared into his eyes and thought about what he was saying before I threw my hands in the air, "Why does everyone always tell me about how I am?" I asked in humorous exasperation.

"Because your head is so far up your own ass, you can't see it for yourself." I rested my face in my palm sighed dramatically and he began laughing with me soon following.

"I guess that's why I need the guild."

"Damn straight. Now seriously, are you coming to the party or not?" he said as he stood up and brushed the grass off his pants.

I visibly balked at his question, "Would they even want me there?"

He put his hands on his hips and cocked his head in irritation, "Yes, they've been asking about you…and not in a bad way."

I furrowed my brow at him, "Really?"

"Really. They did see you save the current chief, if you remember. So are you coming or not?" I gave him a conspiratorial look before nodding and standing up to follow him.

lll

The conversation with Gray, and my subsequent appearance at the celebration did much to help my mood, the journey back to Magnolia, not so much. I found myself having more and more alone time. During that time, I couldn't help but think about the interactions between my mother and I. From her beating me senseless, to her murdering the village chief, to her disowning me. Once caught in that maelstrom, I found it impossible to escape from the thoughts it brought to the front of my mind.

Gray had been right. I had been focusing on becoming just like my mother in some childish belief that if I became her, she would take back leaving me. I didn't regret becoming part of the guild in the slightest, on the contrary, it was probably the best thing to ever happen to me. However, the acknowledgment of the positive of that event did not wash away the sting of abandonment. I had thought, and still think so some degree, that she had left me because she was displeased with me. I believed that I had proven myself to be incapable of defending myself alongside her, and as such became a liability that she couldn't endure. The thought was painful, and I had never consciously confronted it until now.

I also understood Gray's logic of how I should surpass her, though I took a more practical approach to what he had said. I had been practicing the exact things she had taught me from a young age, with no regard for innovation. Upon a closer inspection, practicing her methods would not allow me to surpass her; it would merely make me a cheap imitation of her. Similarly, I could think of more efficient ways to train and improve. Most telling, for the first time in my life, I could see flaws in her abilities. She was so rigid and straightforward in her approach, leaving no room for improvisation and flexibility. That was the reason I had any success at all in our encounter.

As exciting as these new revelations were, they barely kept the edge off my sadness. I was still feeling the full brunt of metaphorically losing my mother. That pain would take time to subside. That or a fantastic distraction, but I couldn't think of anything to do that besides getting absolutely wasted. Of course, a bad plan was better than no plan, so after my travelling party arrived at the guildhall, with me in the back to avoid the standard fanfare, I immediately made my way to the bar. As usual, Mira was tending the bar, while Cana was seated at the bar. I thought about sitting away from her, she knew me well enough to not bother me if I avoided her, but decided that a drinking buddy may not be the worst thing in the world.

"Ayyyy, our little covergirl is back from her first S-class quest; and with all limbs intact to boot!" she said as I sat down next to her. I didn't immediately answer her, "Uh-oh, did they get your tongue? Those bastards. How am I supposed to get through the day without your glorious wit?" she mocked.

"Mira, could I have four—no five, actually six…you know what, can I just never see the bottom of a glass tonight?" I asked our lovely bartender, ignoring Cana.

Cana gave me a calculating look, "What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't been ignored by a man since before I hit puberty. Plus you're drinking as if you were a—er, me. What happened?"

On a normal day, either one of those jokes would have slayed me, but I wasn't in the mood, which only seemed to further unnerve her, "Ran into my mom."

She shook her head stoically, "I see." I had to give her credit. She was loud, profane, frequently drunk, perpetually rude, and more than a little vain; but she was certainly not stupid. When she chose to, she could assess a situation like few others. She knew when something was amiss and how to get to the center of the issue. I was reminded of all this as her demeanor made the sudden change from joking to sympathetic. "Your mom does tend to put you into a certain mood. What did she do and/or say."

I took a long drink in preparation for the impending story, "She showed up, tried to free the demon that we were trying to keep imprisoned, inside Gray's mentor of all places, all because she wanted to be the one to kill it. Instead of calmly discussing matters like a normal person, she chose to beat the hell out of Natsu and I. After the demon was released and then crumbled to pieces—that's a long story in and of itself—she proceeded to scold every one of us, except Erza, you know how she loves Erza, because we were being reckless and dumb. Then, after Erza almost destroyed the moon, it turned out the villagers we were trying to help had been demons the whole time, but didn't realize they were demons. My loving mother killed the village chief, and I barely prevented her from killing the chief's son, and subsequently the rest of the village. I then convinced her that she couldn't defeat all of us at once, and she disowned me." I quickly buried my face in another drink, ashamed anew after reliving the story.

She blinked a few times, "Well that's…wow."

"Yep"

"I take it you're not doing the best."

"Nope"

She sighed, "She says a lot of things when she's mad. Do you think she'll get over it?"

"You're ignoring the fact that she killed someone?" I asked between drinks.

"I don't think that's what is bothering you; or at least not the main part. You feel abandoned. Again."

I took a hefty swig of liquor, "It's just that…she's the only parent I've ever had. I don't want to lose her."

She nodded, "I get that. That's how I felt when my mom died."

I looked at her. In my misery, I had forgotten about how she might relate to what happened. "What did you do? You know…afterwards?"

She pursed her lips and looked down for a moment, "I tried to find my father."

"Did you ever find him?"

A sad smile crossed her face, "Not exactly." As if quickly remembering where she was, she composed herself, "What about you? Where's your father?"

I shrugged, "I have no clue. I tried asking about him from time to time, but my mom would never talk about him. I wouldn't even know where to look if I did want to find him."

"Would you want to?"

I thought about it, "Not really. It's not like it would solve anything."

"Everyone handles things in different ways." She eyed my cup, "I take it your way of dealing is to get blackout drunk?"

I finished my cup to illustrate her point, "absolutely"

She smirked at me and motioned to Mira, "Friends never let friends drink alone…if you'll have me, that is."

I smiled back, "I can't think of a better companion on this quest." Cup after cup went, taking us late into the night, until reason and sadness were but distant memories.


End file.
